Where the Dead Walk
by Mystic Catface
Summary: Sirius has gone through the veil, but everything is not what it seems. In the living world, Harry's been kidnapped and what are the consequences of Voldemort's return to power? Now complete!
1. The Light

            Sirius opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. Very high and shrouded by shadows, a chandelier hung, seemingly floating in space. Its light, reflected by the many crystals decorating it, cast the lower half of the room in a soft glow. It was so quiet; he could plainly hear his heart beating loudly in his chest. 

            Sirius closed his eyes again and tried to work out why he was lying on the floor. Bright flashes and shouts echoed across his mind, followed by the feeling of the most intense cold imaginable. He sighed, looked upwards and focused once more upon the light. 

            After a short while he sat up and surveyed his surroundings. A wide, high-ceilinged rectangular stone chamber, built up on all sides with tiers of stone benches, occasionally interrupted by heavy wooden doors. He was lying in the middle of a rectangular pit in the centre of the room, completely alone. Sirius stretched out his hand to stand up and it rested upon a wooden stick, carved at one end into a handle. He had no idea what it was for but had an impression that it was important, so picked it up and placed in the inside pocket of his robes. 

            He stood up and dusted himself down. Turning around, he noticed a raised dais, upon which was a crumbling archway hung with a tattered black veil, fluttering slightly. Sirius stared at it, desperately trying to snatch at the memories, which hovered at the back of his mind, but faded before he could reach them. He walked around the arch, looking behind it but it was exactly the same, just a black veil moving in a non-existent breeze. 

            Sirius frowned and rubbed the back of his head. With no fixed idea of where he was going or what he would do when he got there, he walked to the edge of the pit, slowly climbed up the steep stone stairs and opened one of the doors.  


	2. Hall of a Thousand Doors

 The Hall of a Thousand Doors

              It opened with a loud creak, echoing around the vaulted marble hall on the other side. Sirius stepped through the doorway and looked around for any signs of life. Nothing. He cast a last look back at the veil, rippling innocently far below, then closed the door with a bang, startling himself with the noise. The air, he noticed, was musty and thick with dust motes. The whole building gave off a general feeling of neglect, and Sirius instantly knew that nobody had been through the hall or in the stone chamber for many years. All around the hall were doors of different shapes and materials, some large and inlaid with gold; others very narrow and made of cheap wood. One that Sirius instantly recoiled from was a black void in the wall, bottomless as the night and adorned simply with a small silver handle.  

            Sirius chose one at random, mahogany with a large gold doorknob in the centre. He pulled it towards him, stepped forward and was confronted with a sheer drop down the side of a cliff. A black, storm-ravaged sea pounded the base of the rock and a gale screamed in fury, trying to drag Sirius over the edge. He yanked himself backwards and released the door, which slammed shut with a bang. 

            Breathing heavily and a bit shaken, he leant against the door and closed his eyes. "WHERE AM I, WHAT IS THIS PLACE?" He yelled, but no one answered but his own voice, echoing down the hall. The oppressive silence fell once again and Sirius felt the beginnings of panic stirring within him. He ran down the hall, trying to find a corridor, a flight of stairs, anything, but all he found were more and more doors stretching off into eternity. 

            Sirius collapsed onto the floor and buried his face into his hands. He felt something rise within him and without knowing why, threw his head back and howled, a loud primeval sound of anguish, which ripped from his throat. The change happened that quickly it was only when Sirius realised he was standing on four legs, that he had turned into a dog. 


	3. A Gryffindor Returns

**Disclaimer- **I've pinched, umm…borrowed the characters from JK Rowling's Harry Potter.

        People have been bugging me to write another chapter so here it is! Thank you to Tonks and Oliver who were the only two people who I didn't know that read and reviewed. Hopefully, the answer to your question will become clear. The rest were my friends that I forced into reviewing so I look popular. Also, Templa Otmena, you know who you are, cheers for being as weird as I am!

A Gryffindor Returns

It felt very strange being an animal, the transformation seemed to come from somewhere inside him. His sense of smell and hearing had improved dramatically, but his vision had turned black and white. Walking, or rather trotting, was faster with four feet and he had a tail! Sirius wagged it experimentally. He also felt calmer as a dog, less panicked. He sniffed the air. Apart from dust and old wood polish there was a subtle smell, warm and comforting, which brought back feelings of happiness and nostalgia. Books, ink and a wood fire. He followed the smell along the hallway, his claws tapping on the marble, it got stronger as Sirius neared the source and he ran faster and faster, needing to know where it was. 

Suddenly, he skidded to a stop, paws sliding on the slippery floor. He was in front of a gilt-framed painting, almost life-size, of a large woman in a pink dress. The smell was coming from behind it. Sirius sat back on his haunches and whined, how on earth was he going to get through it? Knowing instinctively what to do, he concentrated at a point within himself and changed back into a man. 

Sirius straightened up and examined the painting. He'd definitely seen it before, many times, but where he could not pin down. He traced the frame with his fingers, than slid them round the edges and tried to life it off the wall. Nothing happened, it was stuck fast. It intrigued him; the woman didn't strike him as a relation or somebody he knew well, so why did he feel like he had, well, spoken to her. 'What a stupid idea,' he thought, 'people don't talk to paintings.' Reaching forward he touched the woman's face lightly. To his surprise a tiny hole appeared, growing steadily bigger until it was large enough for a person to crawl through. Sirius stepped backwards, wondering if something was going to come out of it, but nothing did. He glanced along the corridor again, and then back at the hole. There was nothing for it, he took a deep breath and climbed into the painting. 


	4. Welcome Back Padfoot

**Disclaimer- **Yes, we all know I didn't make up Harry Potter.

Welcome back Padfoot 

He stood up straight and looked around. He was in some sort of common room with tables and chairs arranged around a large fire roaring in the grate, a flight of stairs at each end. All the furnishings were red and gold and a large banner of a lion was draped above the fireplace. Sirius felt happiness well up inside him; he ran his hand along the back of one of the chairs, then walked over to the window, looking out across wide green lawns and a bright blue sky. In the distance he could see a large lake and a forest, hazy with mist. Birdsong and rustling leaves filled the air, creating an ache deep inside Sirius, why couldn't he remember? He dropped his gaze to the windowsill, trying to control the tears, which pricked his eyes. Under control again, he turned his attention to the people walking around outside, laughing, talking, relaxing under one of the trees. Sirius was really confused, why was he here, in a place he used to know but somehow forgot? 

Looking around the common room again, he noticed a hole in the wall; different from the hole he'd entered, which had disappeared the moment he stepped through. He walked over to it and crawled out into a passageway. From what he's seen of the building out of the window, Sirius had realised that he was in a castle of some sort and this was further strengthened by the suits of armour and burning torches lining the walls. Following his instinct, he walked down staircases and through doors, some which looked like walls until he touched them, until he eventually walked out across a large stone entrance hall and towards a set of heavy wooden doors. 

Pulling one open, he stepped out into the sunlight, a welcome relief from the darkness of the castle and over-bright lighting of the Hall of Doors. He looked around; groups of people passed him, glancing and smiling before walking away. Some of them he thought he recognised, but they were gone before he could think of their names. He walked out onto the grass, down towards the lake, glittering in the sun. He felt peaceful and safe, a deep sense of belonging, but he also had the feeling that he was here to do something specific. From out of the depths of the lake a large tentacle reared before hitting the surface with a splash and disappearing again. 

Sirius smiled and turned away, intending to ask one of the people sitting on the grass where he was and what he was supposed to do. While looking for a person to question, he noticed a couple sat under a tree. The man was tall and skinny, with messy black hair, the woman shorter, with auburn hair. Something lurched within Sirius, and as he watched them laughing about something the man had said, he felt a great wash of anguish, and joy that had him stumbling towards them before he realised what he was doing. He saw the woman break off the conversation and turn to look at him. She touched the man on his arm, who turned round too. Sirius saw recognition in their faces, but he wondered at the sadness he saw there too. 

They stood up and faced Sirius, who walked slowly up to them and stopped, looking from one face to the other, desperate to know whom they were. Before he could speak, the man suddenly pulled him into a bear hug, smiling at him while the woman hugged him close. Sirius could not help it, the tears rolled down his cheeks and he saw the woman start to cry as well as she stood back and took the man's hand. 

"How are you Padfoot?" the man asked.

'Padfoot', thought Sirius, 'is that my name?' 

"It's okay, Sirius," said the woman, "death is a shock to most people. We're so glad to see you." 

'She called me Sirius, is Padfoot a nickname? Why Padfoot?' All this was rushing around Sirius' head, but the main question, which he spoke out loud was, "I'm dead?"

This seemed to confuse the couple, and concern filled their faces. The man, sensing something was wrong, asked in a worried voice,

"Don't you know where you are, who we are?" 

Sirius shook his head and looked at them both with a pleading expression,

"Who am I? Where am I? Why do I know that I've seen it all before, but I can't remember it?"

The man looked back in shock, and the woman's bright green eyes once more filled with tears.       


	5. Deja Vu

Hello! I know it's been a long time, but no, I didn't go to live with Tibetan Monks in a Monastery in Nepal, I've been doing work for college. A lot of work, but now I'm in the second year I've got more free periods so I'll try to figure out what the hell I'm doing with this story. No! I didn't mean that! I know perfectly what I'm going to do and I'm keeping you all in suspense. J 

Hello to Templa Otmena (Otom 'e' na, not Otom 'eeeee' na, so I've been told) , The Morrigan Three, who offers invaluable help by just generally getting on my nerves so I write this to get away from you, Tonks, for your kind reviews and Oliver, I'm glad you found me again. 

**Disclaimer: **I own everything! Ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa! Ok, maybe not but we can all dream.  

Deja Vu 

            The look of pain, shock and disbelief were etched deeply onto the man's face. "I'm James, you're best friend, surely you remember me, Padfoot?" A desperate edge entered his voice, "You're just joking aren't you, old friend?" The look on Sirius' face made the small gleam of hope fade from James' eyes, instead replaced with resignation. "You're not, are you? You really have no idea who we are?" 

Sirius felt like a sledgehammer had hit him. Watching these two people who obviously knew and loved him in distress, was far worse than the fear he felt in the Hall of Doors when he had no idea who he was or where he was going. He wanted to say that it was all right, that it was a joke, but the cold truth hung like a barrier between them. 

The woman took his hand and led him under the tree before sitting down. Sirius followed and James sat on her other side. She looked up and managed a weak smile, "I'm Lily Potter." At the name of Potter, an image of a lightning bolt flashed before Sirius' eyes. Lily was still speaking, "It feels so strange, introducing myself to you after…" she covered her mouth with a trembling hand and James put his arms around her. He took over, "You were my best man at our wedding, our son's godfather, my best friend ever since you tripped Severus up during our Sorting Ceremony in our first year at Hogwarts," he indicated the castle behind Sirius, "one of the Marauders. You spent more time at my house than you did at yours in the summer. We did everything together." James stopped and shook his head, "You don't remember anything at all?" he asked, "How did you get here?" 

Sirius sighed and drew his robe closer around him. The day, which had seemed so warm and cheerful, was now cold and overcast. There was too much for him to take in for it to make any sense. He cast his mind back to the shadowy chamber he woke up in. "I just remember shouts and bangs, flashes of colour, then darkness and cold. It was so cold." Sirius' voice was bleak as he stared out across the iron-grey lake. "I get glimpses of memories, a feeling of recognition when I found myself in the room at the top of the tower. When I saw you two sat under this tree, I knew I'd met you before. He turned and looked James in the eye. "I need to know why I'm here."

            Later that evening they were sat in the Gryffindor common room, grouped around the blazing fire. James and Lily had taken Sirius around Hogwarts and showed him the old classrooms and passageways, trying to find something that would jog his memory. When they had walked into the hall, Sirius had looked upwards at the enchanted ceiling, which was dark and stormy. James and Lily had stood still and held their breath while he studied it with a puzzled expression on his face. He then walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down. "How did you know which table to sit at?" asked Lily. Sirius shrugged, "I don't know. Some things are instinctive." When the food appeared apparently out of thin air, the look of amazement on Sirius' face made James laugh. It was exactly the same look he had worn when they had sat down for their first feast after the Sorting. 

While Sirius tucked into steak and kidney pie, James nudged Lily and pointed at the ceiling. "Have you ever seen it do that before?" he asked. A thunderstorm was brewing and lightning flashed across the roof, illuminating the candle-lit hall below. The peculiar thing was that it was flashing different colours, purples, reds and greens forked down in an amazing display of electricity. Lily frowned and turned back to her husband, "maybe it's a particularly violent storm?" James watched a blue strike crash through the clouds. He nodded absently, "Yes, that's probably it." 


	6. Resurgem

**Disclaimer: **The basic idea of Hogwarts and Lily, James and Sirius are J. K. Rowling's, but the rest is mine. 

**Author's note**: Hello my loyal subjects and welcome to the sixth chapter of my story. Yes, I've finally got round to writing it, but I have been writing a spoof with my co-author The morrigan three, which is coming on pretty well, and I recommend it to anybody with a slightly odd sense of humour. I would like to say _Suilaid, mellon nin_ to Templa Otmena, and hi to Tonks, I don't know if you ever still pop back to see if I've updated, but I'd like to thank you again for the time you spent reading the other chapters and reviewing. To The morrigan three I would simply like to say, "Let's write the chapter at Helm's Deep," because, dear readers, it's going to be one hell of a chapter. Thank you. 

Resurgem 

          The following morning, Sirius had gotten over the shock of food seemingly appear out of nowhere and was tucking into a bacon sandwich. James ate at a more sedate pace and studied the ceiling again. It was back to its usual cloudy grey but James was still puzzled about the previous night's display. Lily, picking at a piece of toast, laid her hand on his arm,  "It was probably nothing."

James smiled at her, "Yes, you'll be right as usual." He turned to Sirius. "Shall we look around the rest of the castle today?"

"Yes, something around here must make me remember something. I did spend seven years of my life here."

Lily looked thoughtful, "How about the library?" 

James choked on his cup of tea. "Library?" he spluttered, "Talk about the most unlikely place in the whole building!"

"No, there might be something about this veil in there, we should look."

"That's why I married her," James told Sirius proudly, "She's the brains and I'm the brawn." 

Lily smiled and elbowed him, "You've got brains too, you just choose not to use them."

Sirius watched them bicker good-naturedly with a strong feeling of nostalgia. The library was as good a guess as any, he supposed. 

            They walked into the hushed library and looked at the row upon row of bookcases, stretching the full length of the room. 'There must be hundreds of thousands of books here', thought Sirius to himself. James scratched his head and turned to Lily, "Where do we start?" 

Lily frowned. "Which category would 'mysterious crumbling arches that are a pathway between the living and the dead' be under?" 

Sirius walked along the ends of the rows until he came to the section listed under V. "Vampires, Vanishing, Vaticination*, Veils. Ahhh." Sirius halted and studied the books dedicated to 'veils'. He could clearly see the rippling black curtain in his mind and hopefully there would be something here that would explain what it was. He chose a dusty leather- bound volume at random, titled 'Transitus per Dimensii'**. 

            It was in a foreign language he had no hope of understanding but he flicked through to see if there were any diagrams. He was surprised to notice that a large chunk of the middle had been burnt out, and he decided this did not bode well for his plight, but chose a few more books and scanned them to see if there was any mention of transportation between the living and the dead. 

            The last book he picked up was black and the peeling gold letters simply said 'Resurgem' ***. Sirius sat of the floor and began to read.

       'Study of life after death. Ancient druids wielded great power and tried to find a way to bring the dead back to life by retrieving the soul. They created archways to the world of the dead and volunteers passed through, never to return. Terrible catastrophes occurred as otherworldly forces escaped the gateways. The gateways were destroyed due to fears that the veil between the living and the dead would rip entirely.'

            Sirius shut the book and looked up, watching people walk past or sit down at a table and read. They didn't look very dangerous, but he suspected the thunderstorm in the ceiling of the Great Hall had something to do with his coming. At least he now knew how he got here; he must have walked through a Druid's Veil. The book did not mention why he had lost his memory though, probably because those who went through never came back so nobody would know. The thought sent a chill down his spine. 

James appeared at the end of the row and looked down to see his best friend sat on the floor with his head in his hands. He squatted down next to him.

"Don't worry, there's bound to be something here. It's not like we're going anywhere is it?" 

Sirius gave him a weak smile and James helped him up.

"I know what the veil is," he told James, "but not how to get back through it, or even if I can. The hole I crawled through to get here disappeared as soon as I entered the common room."

"Maybe Lily will come up with something," James told Sirius confidently, "she always has an answer for everything."

            Lily finished reading the book Sirius found and leant back in her chair, crossing her arms. James sat forward expectantly.

"Well?"

She sighed. "I don't know. If you can't leave the way you came in, maybe you can leave by the way we came in."

Sirius frowned, "You didn't just appear here then?"

James laughed, "No. After I, well, died, I sort of floated for a bit, then Lily took my hand and we moved upwards towards a blinding light. Then we were in a tunnel, the sides were swirling and occasionally I caught glimpses of other places through the walls. Then, in front of us, there was an opening and as we walked towards it, it got bigger and bigger and I could see the castle, and the grounds, and the Forbidden Forest. We stepped through and the gates at the end of the drive materialised. I turned to Lily and she said, "We're here."

            Sirius sat in silence for a while. Lily reached across and took his hand in hers. "It's okay, it was quite peaceful actually." 

"So, not everybody comes here?" Sirius asked.

"No," replied James, "I think you go wherever you were happiest in life. For us that was here." He smiled and brushed a strand of hair away from his wife's face. "But to be blunt, as long as I was with Lily I couldn't have cared less where we ended up."  

Sirius grinned, "I think I'll leave you two to make eyes at each other and go down to the Quidditch pitch. Maybe something will jog my memory."

            Sirius left them in the library and strolled across the grass to the pitch. Nobody was currently playing and the spectator towers stood out stark against the overcast sky. He walked to the centre and looked upwards, closing his eyes as the memory of a roaring crowd and frantic cheers swept him into the past. 

The wind was whipping through his hair and rain was stinging his face as he sped toward the bludger and bashed it towards a player in green. He could feel the tension in the air as he watched James and the other seeker streak down towards the ground where a small gold flash was hovering inches above the grass. The referee's whistle pierced the air and James, triumphant, rose above the other players, the Snitch in his hand, calling "Sirius!, Sirius!, Sirius!" 

Sirius snapped back to the present as he realised the shouting was not in his mind. He opened his eyes and saw James loping towards him.

"Sirius! Lily and I have decided that if you want to try and get back to where you came from, you should go down to the main gate and see if you can enter the tunnel we came down."

"Will that work?" Sirius asked.

"We don't know, but you could give it a try." James urged him forward, "Come on, she's waiting on the drive."

Sirius stopped and turned around. He looked at James' face and saw joy, but sadness too. "You don't want me to go."

James stopped too and looked into his friend's eyes. "You could always know what I was thinking," He put his hands on Sirius' shoulders and looked up at the sky, where the sun was emerging from behind a cloud. Light bathed them both and James' eyes, usually hazel, were shadowed. He took a deep breath and gazed earnestly into Sirius' face. "No," James admitted, "I want you to stay here with us so we can spend forever together, living like we lived while at Hogwarts, pulling pranks, finding secret passageways, experimenting with magic and when Harry comes we would live together as a family, but I know that you wouldn't be completely happy." James squeezed his shoulders, "You are my best friend and I know you want to go back into the world of the living, because you're alive." The pain this was causing James was plain to Sirius and he pulled James close.

"I will be back you know. It'll only be a while, just until I decide to die properly."

James snorted and hugged him back, "That's the Sirius I know, cracking a joke at a serious time." He let go and took a deep breath, "Well, I suppose we'd better get this over with. Hopefully, once I get you to the other end, I can find my way back again." 

"What?" exclaimed Sirius.

"Well, somebody's got to go with you to make sure you don't get lost. We'd both come, but we don't know how unstable the pathway is. I've more chance of finding my way back alone than risking us both being trapped in different worlds."

"You'd do that for me?" Sirius asked in a whisper.

"Sirius, old chum, I would do anything for you, as I know you would for me and Lily," James replied, "Just promise us a few things."

"Anything." Sirius vowed.

"Cause Voldemort and his Death Eaters as much trouble as possible, find a wonderful woman to marry, have lots of gorgeous kids and live to a ripe old age."

"You've got it." Sirius grinned, "And I'll name two of my children Lily and James."

James laughed, "And I bet they'll cause you as much mischief as we did to my parents." James' smile dimmed, "Also, Sirius, can you keep and eye on Harry. I know he's had it tough and so have we, not being able to watch him grow up and care for him, but he couldn't have a better person than you for a godfather."

Sirius clasped James' hand. "I promise."

            They made their way down to the massive stone gateposts, topped with winged boars and supporting wrought iron gates. Beyond it was a swirling pale mist that gave off an aura of deep cold. Sirius watched with anxiety as James said goodbye to Lily. What if he couldn't get back? There was no way he could dissuade James though once he had made up his mind about something so Sirius prayed that he would somehow find his way home, and James could get back to Lily without falling into another place. James walked up beside him and Lily kissed him on the cheek,

"We'll be waiting for you."

"And I'll be waiting for the day we will meet again, hopefully with my memories this time."

She waved them goodbye and James and Sirius walked forward, into the mist.

* Vaticination- The art of forecasting or prediction.

** Transitus per Dimensii- Passage through dimensions

*** Resurgem- 'I will rise again'. _(From Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.)_


	7. Life goes on

Disclaimer: See other chapters

AN: Sorry for the delay everybody, I've had so much to do with my A Levels and things, and I also got completely stuck about what to do next as I'm writing this as I go along, but now I've got lots of free time, I might get some more chapters done and eventually bring things to a conclusion! Thanks to all who have reviewed and enjoy this chapter.

Templa Otmena: You've been bugging me about this chapter for ages so here it is, and thanks for reading over it for me!

Alteng: I have no idea how you came across my story, but thanks for all the reviews! I'm not really sure where Lily, James and now Sirius are, a kind of alternate realm I suppose because I don't personally believe in a fixed heaven and hell, just a different state of being. I think Lily is a bit like Hermione from what I've read about her in the HP books so far, for example fighting for what she thinks is right (defending Snape) even though it may not be popular with everybody else. I hope you like this new direction I'm taking.

The Morrigan Three: It would have been funny if she did!

Life goes on

Harry, having an even more tedious summer than last year, was lying on his bed; eyes squinted shut against the stream of sunlight coming through the window. For the seventh time that morning he was thinking back to the battle over the prophecy and reliving every curse, every flash of light and seared into his memory was the most terrible image of all, Sirius falling backwards in slow motion through the veil with a look of terror upon his face. Everybody had told him that it was not his fault, but deep down Harry knew it was. It was he who had let himself be tricked by Voldemort into thinking his godfather was in trouble, he who rushed off to the ministry to save him, only to be the cause of Sirius going to the Department of Mysteries in the first place, and just standing there while he was hurled through the veil to his death. Harry was positive he could have done something, saved Sirius somehow, but he didn't, and he would have to live with that guilt the rest of his life.

His aunt and uncle left him well alone and Dudley had become even more chronically afraid of Harry after what happened with the Dementors last year. He was also petrified of the dark and wouldn't go anywhere after dusk without being cajoled by his parents. His friends had been told that Dudley had been attacked by a knife-wielding mugger and had managed to heroically fight him off using his boxing moves, which Harry would have found amusing if he didn't know with first hand experience that a Dementor was far worse than any mugger. He also wondered what frightening experiences Dudley had witnessed, it certainly wasn't his parents being murdered in front of him by an insane dark wizard, in fact, the only thing Harry could think of apart from Hagrid giving him a tail and the Weasley twins slipping him a Ton-Tongue Toffee, was the three days a couple of years ago when both TVs had broken, making him miss twelve different programs and a special Neighbours omnibus.

Harry spent most of the time in his room, irritated by the unbroken silences that descended over the table during meal times and Dudley quickly waddling out of whichever room he was in if Harry entered it. Harry once intentionally went into the living room and leant on the door frame so Dudley couldn't get out without passing him, turning his cousin into a quivering mass, pressed as far back into his chair as he could and shooting frequent glances at the open window as though wondering if he could reach it without Harry attacking him. Harry was going to see how far he could push him when he noticed a brown owl gliding over Number Seven, heading for his bedroom window.

Harry left a near-hysterical Dudley and went upstairs to his room, shutting the door and untying the letter off the owl, which turned round and launched itself back out of the window. It was from Ron, who could not say much in case the letter was intercepted, but offered commiserations for him being once again stuck with his muggle relatives and as usual, telling him not to blame himself for Sirius' death. Harry felt like screwing the parchment back up and throwing it back out of the window after the owl but restrained himself and sat down heavily on his bed instead. He knew that Ron, and Hermione, Remus and Dumbledore who had also sent him letters saying much the same thing were only trying to help, but the pain never went away. Harry felt especially guilty towards Remus, as now due to him, he was the only true Marauder left.

Harry had written back, asking if he could leave the Dursleys early and staying at the Burrow but so far there hadn't been any reply. That had been two weeks ago and Harry had given up hope of being allowed to leave Privet Drive early, instead once again creating a calendar and pinning it on the wall, crossing off the days till he could go back through the barrier into the magical world and leave limbo behind.

He shifted slightly so his face was out of the sun's glare and looked around the room. Hedwig's cage was empty, the owl, ever sensitive to her master's moods, wisely staying out of her master's way until he calmed down enough to stop flying into sudden rages where he threw things around the room then just sat in the middle of the bedroom floor, staring into space. She tried to comfort him, but he repulsed any contact, preferring to deal with his misery alone.

Harry suddenly swung his legs off the bed and opened the bed-side cabinet, pulling out the photo album containing the pictures of his parents, including one of them stood with a tall black-haired man who was flashing a dazzling smile towards the camera and striking various dashing poses, making James and Lily laugh. Harry didn't realise he was crying until a tear landed on his hand and Sirius' face blurred from his vision. He carefully closed the book and replaced it, turning to gaze out of the window at the overcast grey sky, seemingly sharing his mood by gently beginning to rain.

Harry didn't notice Pig, as being grey the little owl was well camouflaged against the growing storm clouds, until a dripping mass of feathers hurtled through the window Harry was about to shut, and landed next to him on the duvet. Harry, recovering from his surprise, scooped the bundle up and disposed him in Hedwig's cage after removing the note attached to his leg, unwilling to let Pig go back outside where he'd probably be hit by lightning as Pig had been a present to Ron from Sirius, and Harry was therefore more likely to jump out of the window himself. The note was from Ron, telling Harry, to his relief, that the warding spells at the Burrow had been completed and the Weasleys could pick him up at eleven the following morning. Harry went downstairs and found his aunt and uncle finishing breakfast while Dudley, upon seeing his cousin, leapt a foot in the air and beat a quick exit to the living room. Harry ignored him and sat down at the table. Uncle Vernon cleared his throat loudly and eyed Harry over the top of his newspaper.

"Ahem, we err, received a letter from Aunt Marge this morning, saying that she's like us to visit, but…"

"As long as I'm not with you," Harry finished. He knew Aunt Marge had had her memory modified after the last incident when he blew her up, but some instinct must have remained because he'd never seen her back at Privet Drive again, and evidently her intense dislike of her brother's nephew had now reached a new level.

"Don't worry, I'll be leaving tomorrow," he continued, noticing the palpable relief on Vernon and Petunia's faces at this announcement.

"Oh, um, good," said Vernon, but then a horrified look replaced the earlier triumph, "They're not going to turn up at the front door are they?"

Harry presumed 'they' meant Moody, Tonks, Remus and Mr and Mrs Weasley that had met him at King's Cross the previous month. Apparently his uncle still hadn't gotten over the shock of Moody's spinning eyeball and thinly veiled threats.

"No, the neighbours won't see anything," Harry answered acidly, wondering if Vernon ever thought about anybody but himself and what the neighbours were thinking for a change. Aunt Petunia looked like she was going to say something back, but managed to check herself and continued sipping her orange juice instead.

Harry grabbed a bit of toast and went back upstairs to begin packing. Mr and Mrs Weasley, and probably Tonks and Moody were going to pick him up in the Weasley's new car, which Harry had at first raised his eyebrows at but Ron had written that the Ministry of Magic had enough to do with Voldemort's return than worrying about his dad having another car or not, 'and anyway,' he had scribbled, 'do you really think my Mum would let him anywhere near it with magic after what happened last time?' Harry only remembered too well the trouble they had gotten in, and privately thought Mrs Weasley had made a wise decision. Ron said they couldn't floo in again due to security worries and several wards around the house prevented Apparition and Portkeys.

Harry thought about Sirius again as he put his books away in his trunk and wrapped Pig up in a towel to dry him off, remembering his delighted expression when he and Ron had told him about their escapades at Hogwarts so far. His favourite had been Draco being turned into a ferret by Moody, closely followed by Snape missing out on his Order of Merlin due to his disappearance on Buckbeak. Harry felt the grief rise within him again. If only he could have said sorry. If only he could have said goodbye.

* * *

The following morning he was up early and double-checking his trunk and belongings, lifting up the floorboards and checking that nothing had been missed. His precious album he placed on top of his things, gazing again at his parents and Sirius waving enthusiastically at him from the photo. He shut the lid quickly and put the cage, minus Pigwidgeon who had recovered from yesterday and was happily zooming around the room, occasionally flying into the ceiling light shade and knocking clouds of dust free, exciting the tiny bird even more, on top of it. Harry eventually shooed him into the cage and dragged everything downstairs into the living room. Hopefully the Dursleys would stay in bed until he left, he couldn't stand them alternately glaring at him for having the nerve to exist and suddenly realising what they were doing and looking wildly round in case a hit squad of wizards suddenly burst in through the back door. The Weasleys would also be in too much of a hurry to question why his relatives weren't there waving him goodbye, even though Harry would have dearly loved to see Vernon's face if he was forced to. They apparently had had the same idea and eleven O'clock came round with Harry sat on the arm of Vernon's chair and peering out of the window, feeling very much like Aunt Petunia spying on the neighbours. 11.20 ticked past and by then his aunt and uncle had come downstairs, obviously disappointed that Harry was still there. Harry just glared at them and turned back to the window.

At half eleven Harry opened the front door and walked down to the bottom of the front garden, looking up and down Private Drive, wondering what was keeping them. Perhaps something had gone wrong and they couldn't come or they were stuck in traffic, not usually a problem for magic-users but in a normal car trying to go undetected there'd be not much they could do. He let Pig go in case Ron needed to send another letter and sat down on the low wall, accidentally squashing a tulip in the border. He saw Aunt Petunia, stood in the living room and looking at him, wince, but he ignored her and looked back up the street, remembering the night he ran away from home and saw Sirius for the first time in his animagus form. He wanted so much for the large, loping Grim-like dog to appear and turn into his godfather that he sat in a daydream, unaware of the passage of time and the rain starting once again.

Harry snapped back to the present and glanced at his watch, the one Dudley had gotten for his birthday years ago but had left on top of the bookcase in Harry's room and forgotten. He was dripping wet and frozen through, wishing he could go to Madam Pomfrey for some Pepper-Up potion, but wishing even more that Sirius was still alive.

* * *

Unbeknownst to Harry, the man of his thoughts was currently walking into a swirling fog with his father and had absolutely no idea where they were going to end up. Sirius glanced behind him, wanting a last glance at Lily, but only seeing her red halo of hair burning through the mist like a beacon of hope and though she wouldn't be able to see him, he lifted his hand anyway in a final farewell, again thinking on the incredible sacrifice they were making for him. Sirius felt the strangest tingling across his skin, like tiny electric shocks. He looked at James walking next to him, and although he grinned reassurance, Sirius could tell that he wasn't affected in the same way. He rationalised that is must be because he wasn't exactly dead, though he wasn't exactly alive either.

* * *

Harry checked the mantelpiece clock again, now showing seven O'clock, and sighed. Hedwig still hadn't turned up so he couldn't send a letter asking what was taking so long, and he wished that he'd written something to send with Pig before letting him go. Uncle Vernon, clearly annoyed at having his routine cluttered up with a depressed Harry glaring out of the front window like he wished he could blast it across the street, and satisfied that he wouldn't be able to get punished because the Weasleys being late wasn't his fault and he had just reason to be annoyed, had asked several pointed questions throughout the day, which didn't improve Harry's mood any further.

"What time are they supposed to be here?"

"Eleven."

"Typical. Some people just have no regard for others."

Harry rolled his eyes at this statement which could clearly be aimed back at his uncle and just grunted in reply, not trusting himself not to snap back a retort.

"They do realise that we have to leave at eight tomorrow to get to Marge's in time for lunch."

Harry's lack of response emboldened him.

"Do they think we've nothing better to do than sit here all day?"

Harry stood up and walked out of the room but then Uncle Vernon, on a roll, said the worst thing he possibly could have done:

"What happened to the godfather of yours, eh? Still writing to him? Escaped convict didn't you say? How come he hasn't come to pick you up? I'm not surprised actually, his type never have any consideration for others!"

Harry froze half way up the stairs, a haze of red passing before his eyes and his hands began to tremble. Hate blazed from his eyes and he whipped his wand out of his pocket, spinning round and bursting into the living room, throwing the door against the wall with an unconscious force, making his aunt and uncle stare at him like was possessed. Harry, almost uncontrollable with rage, seemed to blaze with power and the air pressure in the room increased, which, coupled with Harry's anger, pinned Vernon and Petunia to their seats.

"HOW DARE YOU EVEN MENTION HIM! HOW DARE YOU SIT THERE AND TALK ABOUT A MAN WHO WENT THROUGH MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE! HE WAS A THOUSAND TIMES BETTER THAN YOU! HE GAVE HIS _LIFE_ FOR ME AND YOU DARE ASK WHY HE DOESN'T COME?"

The walls began to shake, making lumps of plaster fall from the ceiling and the ornaments of the shelves fall, shattering on the floor.

"HE WOULD HAVE TAKEN ME AWAY FROM HERE, AWAY FROM THE YEARS OF MISERY YOU PUT ME THROUGH AND I WOULD HAVE BEEN NORMAL! FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE I WOULD HAVE BEEN WITH SOMEBODY THAT WANTED ME THERE AND NOT JUST TOLERATING ME BECAUSE I WAS DUMPED ON THEIR DOORSTEP!"

Car and house alarms all up Private Drive began to ring and the shaking became even more violent. Dudley, not knowing what was happening, ran into the room and suddenly halted behind the sofa upon which his parents were sat petrified, gawping at Harry with his mouth open. Harry raised his voice above the growing noise.

"I DESPISE ALL OF YOU," he spat at the three Dursleys, "AND I WILL NEVER COME BACK TO THIS HOUSE EVER AGAIN, I WOULD RATHER **_DIE_** THAN BE FORCED TO LIVE HERE WHILE YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO EVER CARED ABOUT ME TURNING UP LATE!"

Harry stopped shouting and the rattling died away. His eyes became blank and he stared at the Dursleys in utter revulsion. "I couldn't care less if you were all killed by Voldemort himself, if it brought back Sirius," he whispered before picking up his trunk and leaving the house. Harry didn't care if he got into trouble, he didn't care about anything any more. The shock of Sirius' death had finally given way to anger, hate, and revenge.


	8. One's Loss, Another's Gain

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter characters are owned by JK Rowling.

A/N: Thanks to everybody who reviewed and I'm really pleased with all the positive things people had to say. I think I'm finally getting to grips with this story so hang in there!

**One's Loss, Another's Gain**

Harry stalked up the street, livid. He didn't care if Dumbledore turned up and locked him in Grimmauld Place for the rest of the summer, there was no way he would go back and live in that house, pretending that nothing had happened. He might have let it go in the past but he was old enough to think for himself, and he wasn't going to stand by while the Dursleys sneer at Sirius. They would never understand what his godfather had done for him.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he did not realise he was taking his usual route to the play area until the creaking of the swings made him start. Leaving his trunk on the grass, he sat on one and drifted back and forth while he figured out what to do next. Harry supposed he could get the Knight Bus again and wait for Dumbledore or a member of the Order to pick him up from the Leaky Cauldron. He knew he wouldn't hear the end of it, how he was putting his life in danger by running off again, how Voldemort would do anything to get hold of him. Snape especially wouldn't allow an opportunity to pass without reminding him again how ungrateful, selfish and as arrogant as his father before him he was.

Harry savoured the silence, shivering slightly in the cool breeze. He wished he knew what had happened with the Weasleys. Tipping his head back, he scanned the night sky, looking for Sirius, the Dog Star. There it was, not bright, but still there, twinkling faintly in the heavens. Harry sighed and hung his head. With the rage over he felt as empty as before, was he destined to lose everybody he wondered?

After sitting and thinking about Sirius for a while, a thought came to him: What about Mrs Figg? Her house wasn't far and he couldn't stay sat in the park all night. Plus, since he now knew that she knew about the wizarding world, perhaps they could talk about something other than cats for a change. She might also tell him about what was happening concerning Voldemort. She would understand why he'd left the Dursleys, having met Petunia and Vernon before.

He tucked his wand into his jeans, hoping Mrs Figg wasn't already in bed. A rustle behind him made him stop and look round. Bushes were shadowy shapes in the half-dusk, but he couldn't see anything.

"Probably a cat," Harry muttered, casting another glance into the undergrowth before turning to his trunk.

The last thing he heard before toppling into darkness was a voice behind him hissing, "Stupefy!"

* * *

Sirius gazed out across a lush green field of swaying grass towards a small cottage, the chimney smoking gently in the breeze. Set beneath an impossibly blue sky, set with fluffy clouds, the picture was perfect.

The scene was gone is a shrouding of mist, enclosing Sirius and James back in obscurity. Sirius turned to his companion:

"What was that?"

James looked unconcerned, "Somebody else's world, where they lived in life and now reside in death."

Sirius considered this, watching as the mist parted again to reveal a shadowy forest, heavy with malice. Muted howls echoed from the hills, sending chills down his spine.

"It's not just humans that die," James said quietly, "So it's best if we don't stray too close. Once we enter another world, we may not be able to return again."

"What happens if a person never finds a place where they're content?"

James smiled faintly, "I don't know. Do they find happiness in death that they never had in life or are they destined to continue their search? Perhaps they walk these pathways until the end of time, never finding rest."

This was a chilling thought, what if they were trapped forever in the veil between worlds? Sirius didn't know if it was his own imagination, triggered by James' theories, but he thought he could hear faint whispers in the mist, distorted so he couldn't tell where they were coming from. Scenes were also flashing past more frequently, a castle silhouetted by the moon, a walled city with white spires, a squalled mountain-framed lake, slate grey in the rain. Sirius could also feel a subtle change in the atmosphere, as the mist became darker and more oppressive. An otherworldly wind picked up, ruffling James and Sirius' hair.

"What's happening?" Asked Sirius, alarmed.

"I don't know," James answered shakily, "I really don't know."

* * *

Harry opened his eyes slowly, his head swimming nauseously. His mouth was parched and Harry's whole body felt lethargic. He shut his eyes again, breathing deeply of the musty air and willing himself not to be sick. Barely perceptively, he concentrated on various areas of his body looking for broken bones, cuts and restraints. Nothing. He opened his eyes again, slowly, and stared at a cobweb hanging from the mouldy ceiling, trying to recollect what he had been doing and where he was. After a while it came to him, the park. 'Bugger,' Harry mentally cursed, 'that's just great. Five years of being in dangerous situations and vowing to go down fighting, and I am eventually caught sitting on a swing, gawping up at the stars.'

He wanted to sigh at the injustice of it, but he kept his breathing even, unwilling to alert anybody who might be in the room that he was awake. Instead, he slowly moved his eyes to the side, glancing around the bed. There was nobody he could see, and no sound apart from his own breathing and beating heart. Harry twitched his hand, tensed ready for something to happen but the silence remained, making Harry more confused than ever. If he had been captured, why wasn't he tied up in a cell somewhere, and why, as he soon found out, did he still have his wand?

He studied the carved stick of wood in case it was an elaborate trap, but it certainly looked like his wand, complete with fingerprints all over the handle. Harry sat up gingerly, rubbing the back of his head where the spell had hit. He was in a small rectangular room with peeling, faded yellow wallpaper and the only furniture was the flimsy bed he was sitting on and a dust streaked mirror hanging on the wall. Perhaps one of the Order had picked him up, but why stun him?

Harry quickly surmised that nobody had been in the room for years. Sliding his legs off the bed, he slowly stood up, slightly wobbly still, and edged over to the window. Wiping a circle in the condensation with his sleeve, he looked out into the late afternoon sunlight. Overgrown Rhododendron bushes blocked most of the view and Harry gathered he was on the ground floor at either the back or side of whatever place he was in. Harry tried to prise the window open to let some fresh air in, but years of damp had rusted shut the shutters and he just succeeded in scraping his knuckles. Cursing, he crossed the room to the door and tried the handle. It was locked. Unlikely though it was, Harry didn't want to try an 'Alohamora' charm in case it rebounded off a ward spell of triggered something, so for the minute he decided to wait and see if anybody turned up.

Sitting back down on the bed with a loud creak, he wondered how long he'd been asleep, and then remembered the watch. It was Dudley's and Harry had found it lodged behind the books on the shelf in his room. As well as telling the time in seven different time zones, it also told the date. 15th July. Well, he'd only been out for a day and a half then. Harry wondered whether the Weasleys had eventually turned up at Privet Drive or not, that would be a nasty surprise for the Dursleys if they hadn't already left. If he got out of this alive though, Harry groaned, Snape would have a field day.

* * *

The wind died down and Sirius picked himself up off the floor where he had been forced to his knees.

"Okay?" asked James.

"Yeah, I think so," said Sirius, "Do you recognise where we are?"

James looked puzzled, "No, I didn't see any of this but I wasn't paying much attention anyway."

The mist had moved and they were now stood at a crossroads, the path they were on leading off ahead and another crossing from left to right in front of them. All three wound out of sight. Sirius wondered how far these paths went. Probably forever, constantly expanding like the universe. Sirius always wondered what was beyond the universe for it to expand into, but placed in a situation like this he really didn't want to know.

"Which way?"

James shrugged, "Choose one at random I suppose. Hang on!" He grabbed Sirius' arm, "Do you have your wand?"

"My what?"

James stared at him, aghast, "You don't even remember that? Nothing at all about magic?"

Sirius shook his head, "Sorry."

James, with a pained expression, explained what a wand was and how it worked.

"Like this you mean?" Sirius pulled out the stick he found lying next to him in the veil chamber.

"Yes! Hold it in your hand, flat, and say, "Point me."

"Why don't you have yours?"

"It doesn't work here, only at Hogwarts." Seeing Sirius open his mouth again to ask 'why?', he elaborated further;

"It's to do with emotions. Magic works stronger if the emotions you are feeling are strong. What's human life? A mixture of emotions. In this place," he indicated the mists, "I'm just a shade, but as you are still effectively alive, you still have the strength of emotion."

Sirius looked amazed, "How do you know all that?"

James grinned, "Lily."

Sirius laughed, an odd sound in the silence surrounding them. Still smiling, he held out his wand as directed and said, "Point me."

The wand quivered in his palm and then began to spin in circles. James was obviously disappointed, but smiled in reassurance. "Well it was worth a try."

Sirius watched James choose the right path at random and walk off down it. He felt the guilt of removing James from his place of rest, and from Lily, and probably getting them hopelessly lost in a labyrinth of inter-dimensional pathways. Feeling even more depressed, he slowly followed James, who had stopped and was waiting for him.

"Come on Padfoot, just think of this as another perilous adventure for the Marauders, who dare to go where no witch or wizard has been before!"

"That's it!"

It was James' turn to be startled, "What?"

Sirius repeated what he had done in the hall of doors, concentration on a point within himself and feeling his body slide into his animagus form. He looked up at James and wagged his tail. James looked amused, but also sad.

"I don't think I can, Padfoot. Emotions remember?"

Sirius barked and danced from one front paw to the other.

"Okay, okay, I'll try." James calmed his mind and attempted the transformation, but no matter how hard he searched, the point within was missing. He crouched and scratched a whining Sirius behind the ears. "Told you," he whispered.

Sirius placed his front paws on James' shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. His best friend's faith, and the memories of all the adventures they had gone on while at Hogwarts in their animal forms, running through the night with a dog, werewolf and rat created a steely resolve within James' soul. He closed his eyes and tried again, grimacing with the effort. Sirius stepped back as James' limbs grew tall and slender. A rich silver coat replaced his robes and a magnificent rack of antlers crowned his head. Sirius was running around in circles, barking at the top of his voice. James stamped his foot and shook his head.

Stag and dog looked at each other, then, together again, they ran off into the mist.


	9. A Face From the Past

**Disclaimer: **JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and so on and so forth…

**A/N:** Thanks to volleypickle16, Pain Revisited, wolfawaken, Templa Otmena, Mooncheese, The morrigan three, Lista Trudy, ElveNDestiNy, Scorchy-11, Emma Osbourne, Animagus-Spirit, Barneby and padfoot104 for your wonderful reviews. I apologise for the long gaps between updates but I do know what's going to happen so I'll try and get this finished one day!

A Face from the Past 

By the time Harry had heard anything apart from his own rumbling stomach, the afternoon had passed into evening. Sitting up slowly to prevent the bed from creaking again, he listened to the shuffling of somebody passing along the corridor outside to his door. Silently, he lifted the heavy mirror off the wall and stood behind the door, ready to bring it down on whoever walked through first. He was sure that using magic to defend himself wouldn't get him expelled, but considering his track record and the display at the Dursleys, he didn't want to push it. He could always use his wand as a last resort if the mirror didn't work.

A key scraped in the lock and Harry tensed, mirror held aloft. The door swung open slowly and eddies of dust rose from the bare floorboards. Harry held his breath, waiting for a masked and robed figure to stride in, but nobody did. Instead, he heard a low muttering from outside the door as though somebody was arguing with himself. Unable to hold the mirror up any longer, Harry carefully placed it on the floor, propped up against the wall, and grasping his wand firmly he peered through the hinges. What he saw made him gasp in surprise, unfortunately making him inhale a mouthful of dust.

Fighting the urge to cough, Harry studied the stooped figure mumbling into his chest. Dressed in very ragged and stained robes, Professor Karkaroff was almost unrecognisable as the smooth talking, conceited Durmstrang headmaster Harry remembered from the Triwizard Tournament. Gone was the curly goatee and immaculately brushed hair, instead his beard was long and straggly and his hair matted with filth. Karkaroff's behaviour was also disturbing, rocking backwards and forwards he was frowning and talking in a language Harry presumed was Bulgarian. Suddenly, Karkaroff stood up straight and looked wildly around, rubbing furiously at his left forearm.

"No! I didn't! They're everywhere, always looking! Master, please no!"

Harry had leapt back when Karkaroff had started shouting and stumbled into the mirror, making it crash to the floor. He froze as the glass shattered and expected Karkaroff to burst into the room, but instead the man screamed and ran off down the corridor. This odd behaviour made Harry wonder even more about Karkaroff's mental state, but he also realised that the door was now open with nobody guarding it.

Swiftly, Harry slipped through the door, locked it behind him, pocketing the key afterwards so Karkaroff would hopefully think he was still in there, and then crept down the corridor in the opposite direction. Keeping an ear out for anybody else in the building, he quickly became convinced that he was in some kind of old manor house, long uninhabited judging by the state of the walls and occasional piece of old fashioned furniture, layered by several decades of dust. He made his way around to the front of the building and eventually walked out into the entrance hall.

The grandfather clock began to grind nine O'clock and Harry used this to mask the squeal released by the front door as he wrenched it open. He took a last look behind him to make sure nobody was following, then hunched his jacket over his head and dashed out into the rain.

Ten minutes later, Harry had reached the bottom of the drive and was stood at the side of a narrow country lane, lined by tall hawthorn hedges. Sheltering under a large Horse Chestnut he muttered "Lumos." Sweeping the beam of light from side to side Harry realised that the lane could go for miles in either direction without meeting a main road or another house. He eventually decided that the Knight Bus was his only option; he'd just have to convince Stan that he would pay him sometime in the future, as, not having his trunk; he didn't have any money either.

Making sure he was stood well to the side, almost in the soaking wet hedge, he held out his arm containing his wand, ready to yank it back in once the bus appeared. Harry knew the state of Ernie's driving and once the triple-decker bus appeared he didn't know how much room there'd be on the narrow track.

Nothing happened.

Harry tried again, even waving his arm up and down a bit. Harry was wondering if he was doing something wrong when a flash of gold appeared at head height and began to form glowing words in the air:

_The Knight Bus service has been temporarily suspended until further notice. We apologise for any inconvenience encountered. _

As soon as Harry finished reading, the sign faded and disappeared, leaving a few drifting gold sparks that hit the floor with a hiss. Harry stood in silence apart from the pattering of the rain, completely astonished. What could have happened that was bad enough for the Ministry to stop the Knight Bus? Also, Harry was once again left in the middle of nowhere with the attractive choice of either a long walk through the night in a thunderstorm, rain had already drenched his thin jacket and soaked through his trainers, or going back to the house and hiding somewhere until morning. He quickly chose the latter as his stomach protested loudly once again at how long it had been since he'd eaten. Dashing up the drive again and hitting more puddles than he missed, Harry reflected that he'd wanted something to happen that would elevate the boredom of living at the Dursleys, and that something had, which just goes to show that you should be careful what you wish for.

Always when Sirius had dreamed of being with his friends again, it had been through a shadowy forest and under a full moon, the distinctive clack of James' hooves, his own pad falls and the heavier bounds of Remus echoing amongst the trees as they ran through the dark. Instead, as he and James gallop through the mist, the only sounds he can hear are his own breaths and thudding heart. The stag next to him silently runs, fur rippling in a non-existent breeze that reminds Sirius painfully of the veil on the dais. It also brings back memories of the first time they managed the transformation, and the stunned expression on Remus' and Peter's faces, and probably his own as James turned into a stag. Of all the creatures they had imagined, a deer wasn't one of them but looking at the sharp antlers and the silver fur left them speechless. Sirius remembered that he was desperate to find out what he would turn into and the jubilation of eventually achieving his animal form nearly gave them away as his barks rung out into the night. James seemed to be thinking the same thing because he tossed his head and sped up, challenging the dog who increased his speed, laughing into the void.

Harry leant against the front door and pushed it inwards with a wince at the creak. Shaking his head and scattering water everywhere, he shut the door again and listened carefully for any noises apart from the downpour outside. Nothing. He kept his wand alight and skirting the staircase, made his way along a wide corridor. Passing several large rooms he eventually reached the kitchen. Large and stone-flagged the temperature was colder in here than anywhere else in the house and Harry shivered in his wet clothes. Turning a rusted tap in the sink for a drink of water, all he got was a loud clanking. From the state of the house, the water and electricity had probably been turned off long ago. After a fruitless glance through the cupboards Harry left to look for a room to spend the night in. He'd have to use drying charms and light a fire somewhere before he ended up with hypothermia, more magic but it couldn't be helped, he'd also have to figure out a way to contact Dumbledore or the Weasleys and would be highly unlikely that Karkaroff would have an owl, but he might as well look.

On the second floor he found the room the professor was presumably living in, displayed by the clothes and belongings scattered across the floor. Harry also found, to his great relief, various items of food, Karkaroff had either conjured or bought. Opening a packet of biscuits and taking a few, he surveyed the room. There was nothing of interest apart from a pot on the floor containing a pinch of what Harry recognised as floo powder, not enough for a person to floo but it gave him an idea. Taking this, parchment, ink and a quill as well as the rest of the biscuits he walked back along the corridor, getting as far away from Karkaroff's room as possible, and settled himself in the library to wait till morning.

He cast a charm at the fireplace and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the flickering blaze, letting the warmth seep through his clothes. Once he could feel his fingers again he lit a candle off the sideboard and sat down at a table to compose his letter.

_Dear Mr and Mrs Weasley,_

_ I waited but you didn't come, I hope nothing has happened. I was kidnapped by Professor Karkaroff and he's brought me to this house. I managed to escape but the night bus isn't working. Karkaroff is_

At this point Harry chewed the end of the quill, but suddenly realising what he was doing, spat it out and screwed his face up in disgust. Hoping Karkaroff wasn't the quill-chewing type he carried on scribbling.

_Karkaroff is acting really weirdly and I've managed to avoid him so far._

How were they going to find him though if he didn't even know where he was? He'd have to meet them somewhere, but nowhere that Voldemort knew in case the letter ended up in the wrong hands. Harry dropped the quill and ran his hands through his hair, what would Sirius do? This slip made Harry flinch and the familiar guilt and grief came flooding back. If Sirius wasn't dead, perhaps Harry could have stayed with him this summer and none of this would have happened.

Hanging his head, Harry stared through his letter, again seeing Sirius tumble through the air, seeing him laugh, seeing him as a dog living in a cave.

"That's it!" Harry exclaimed, grabbing the quill again.

I'll meet you at Snuggle's Cave, anywhere else is too dangerous and Privet Drive might be being watched.

_Hopefully I'll see you soon,_

_Harry_

He pulled over another candlestick and charmed it into a reasonable water goblet, charming water into it before taking a drink. Re-reading the letter again he was satisfied that he had put as much detail as he could without endangering anybody or himself, and folding it as he went, walked over to the fireplace. Scattering the pinch of floo powder from Karkaroff's room into the flames, he watched as they turned green then threw the letter into them, stating clearly, "The Burrow." The letter disappeared with a small whoosh, then the fire died down to it's previous state. Harry hoped somebody would find it, and that the somebody was Ron because only he and Hermione knew where Snuggle's Cave was.

A/N: Sorry for this short chapter but I felt that I should post at least something. More will be coming….eventually. ;D


	10. New Friends and Old

Chapter 10: New Friends and Old 

Sirius couldn't tell how long he and James had been running for; there was nothing to indicate the passage of time, if such a thing as time existed in the world of the dead. There was no more random flashes of other worlds, just solid walls of blue-grey enclosing them. What Sirius had noticed though was the gradual drop in temperature. Before, the air had been just slightly cool, which Sirius had hardly registered due to his thick coat but now he was beginning to shiver slightly. James of course didn't feel anything but he noticed his friend's discomfort.

"What is it?"

"Nothing, it's just getting colder, that's all."

After a short period of time though, the cold was beginning to seriously affect Sirius, whose shivering was making his teeth chatter and breath come out in thick plumes. James was getting more and more worried but Sirius was determined to carry on, perhaps this was some kind of test. He'd spent thirteen years of continuous mental torment in Azkaban and survived; a bit of cold wasn't going to stop him now. Soon Sirius could hardly walk, the frozen air was searing his lungs and his shivering had turned into full-blown muscle spasms that racked his body. James frantically pawed the floor with his hooves then slid into his human form, rushing to the black dog and falling on his knees beside him.

"Sirius! Sirius! Change back, perhaps you can conjure a fire, blankets, anything!"

Sirius moaned and lay on the floor, James' words hardly penetrating the buzzing in his ears and the rattling of his chest.

"Sirius! Change back! I can't help you, I can't do magic here. Please, Padfoot, change back!"

Padfoot…the name seemed familiar to Sirius. He struggled to pick out James' voice. What did he want him to do? Change back…to what? The voice was insistent, Sirius wished it would just go away, he wanted to be left alone, but it kept nagging 'change back, Padfoot, change back'. Slowly it registered; it meant turn back to human. But wouldn't he be colder? He was warm now, he didn't want to go back to that cold again, he wanted to stay where he was. The voice was fainter but still there, "Padfoot, don't go! Wake up! Padfoot!"

With an immense effort, Sirius opened one eye and looked at the black haired man who was shouting at him. Would he go away if he did what he said? With great reluctance, Sirius concentrated on returning to his human form and slowly his body elongated and clothes appeared, giving him little protection against the howling wind that had started again, but it seemed to please the man who collapsed on his chest crying.

"Padfoot! Here, use your wand! Sirius, don't give up now, we can make it! Padfoot!"

Oh no, he wanted him to do something else now. It was too much effort, he couldn't feel his body, his face, anything, Sirius' world had narrowed to James' voice and wanting it to stop so he could go to sleep. He was so tired. He was in his best friend's house, in the bed in the attic and sun was shining through the windows. He and James were going to finish the den today then practise Quidditch down by the lake and pretend they were back at Hogwarts. Only three weeks left until they went back though, not long, then they'd be in their second year. He couldn't wait.

James' voice was fading further and further away, he must be calling up the stairs, soon he'll rush in and pull the covers off, telling him to stop being so lazy. He's some room to talk, Sirius thought, it was often James who was late to breakfast after spending all morning lying in bed daydreaming about winning the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor even though he wasn't even on the team yet. He kept telling Sirius that when he was a famous Chaser he'd buy mansions next to each other and they could drive identical Mustangs. Sirius grinned, he couldn't wait.

James saw Sirius smile and it was like a knife to his heart. The last time he'd seen Sirius smile like that was when he'd first held Harry and been told he was going to be a Godfather. The joy in his eyes was something James would never forget, and seeing the same joy on his best friend's face now, he knew he was going to lose him. He cradled Sirius' head in his arms and wept.

The watery morning light, pale as it was through the grimy windows, woke Harry who was stretched out on a sofa, a mouse-nibbled cushion wedged under his head for a pillow. It smelt very musty but Harry was so tired he didn't care. After he'd thrown the letter into the fire, he had spent the next few hours trying to devise a plan of how he was going to get to Snuggle's Cave. He'd thought longingly of his Firebolt but he didn't know where that was, perhaps still sat in his trunk in the play area, and anyway, once he'd managed to get up to Scotland, he didn't actually know where Hogwarts was. To travel the Muggle way, he'd need money and as he didn't have any on him, once again raiding Karkaroff's room was the only option; the wizard must have had some to buy food.

Harry eased himself off the sofa, rubbing his neck, which had a crick in it. Pulling on his shoes he wished that he had a fresh set of clothes after spending the past two days in the ones he was currently wearing but unfortunately that couldn't be helped. He retraced his steps to Karkaroff's room, all the time making sure the professor wasn't hanging around. He'd heard a couple of thumps from the floor above during the night but nothing since. Karkaroff's room was even messier than when he had left it yesterday, so Harry quickly skimmed through the wreckage. He found a moneybag in the inside pocket of an overcoat and notes worth a hundred pounds were inside. Harry raised his eyebrows but remembering the trouble Hagrid and Mr Weasley had with Muggle money, Karkaroff probably didn't realise how much he had. Harry felt a twinge of guilt at stealing money, but Karkaroff did kidnap him so he didn't have much choice.

Once again leaving through the front door, Harry made his way down the drive and set off along the lane.

An hour later Harry heard the sound of traffic in the distance. Nothing had passed him on the lane, otherwise he would have flagged the vehicle down and asked for directions to the nearest town, possibly even a lift but his luck was currently having a week off. After another fifteen minutes walk he came to the main road. In the distance he saw a bus heading towards him, and turning the other way, at the bottom of the hill was a bus stop, which Harry hurried to. When the bus crested the hill and descended towards him, Harry was surprised to see the destination labelled as 'Guildford'. So he was still in Surrey then. He remembered Aunt Petunia dragging him to Guildford in the past if she wanted something from one of the large department stores, but another thing he remembered about it was that it had a train station, and therefore - trains.

The bus hissed to a halt and Harry stood up along with the other passengers. After getting off the bus he looked around trying to get his bearings and he remembered vaguely the place where he was though he hadn't been here for at least six years. Crossing the main road he bought some lunch and asked the woman behind the counter for directions to the train station. When he got there he bought a ticket for London and sat down on a bench to read a newspaper somebody had left until his train arrived.

It was about four O'clock before the train reached King's Cross. Harry had had a quiet journey contemplating how he was going to get to Scotland and he'd had a brainwave, which hopefully would work. It was beginning to drizzle again as he alighted onto the platform and walking through the station, he saw the barrier which admitted Hogwarts pupils every September the first. Harry walked over to it and trying to look inconspicuous, pushed against the metal. As he expected, nothing happened but he felt it was worth a try. He left King's Cross and walked towards the only other magical place there he knew, The Leaky Cauldron.

The old pub was the same, standing wedged between two other buildings and being blissfully ignored by all the Muggles walking past. Harry crossed the street and slipped inside; pulling on a plane black cap he'd bought to cover his distinctive hair and most importantly, his scar. He didn't want anybody recognising him, especially and of Voldemort's followers seen as he didn't know what had been happening over the weeks he'd been away, for all he knew, the press could have started making up lies about him again. Harry kept his head down and sidled around the edge of the busy tavern, spotting Tom having an animated conversation behind the bar with a man wearing a long black coat and top hat, but squeezed past before he was noticed. Even for usual standards, the Leaky Cauldron was very busy, giving Harry some trouble as he tried to make his way to the back door without being stood on or having his cap knocked off. The whole place was buzzing with conversation and copies of the Daily Prophet were being read and waved around. Harry caught a couple of details from the people he passed:

"Second time this month…"

"Still not found…"

"…and they were just left there…"

"Just like last time."

Noticing a Daily Prophet that had been kicked underneath a chair, Harry crouched and picked it up. Sidestepping an old man gesturing wildly with a goblet he walked out into the back yard of the Leaky Cauldron and lifted the paper. Blazoned across the front page was a grainy photograph of a building engulfed in fire. Flames leapt up into the night sky, illuminating the faces of various witches and wizards running to and fro trying to put the fire out. Some were stern, others shocked, all appalled as the orphanage behind them burned beneath a grinning green skull, a snake protruding from its mouth. Harry felt sick, so Voldemort was back, and by the look of it, ready for revenge.

With a leaden heart, he opened the front cover and scanned the inside pages. Arrests, murders, reported sightings, a letter from the Ministry telling people not to panic. 'Second time this month', the man inside the Leaky Cauldron had said. What had been happening while he'd been away? With fresh determination he threw the paper into one of the dustbins and tapped the bricks that would open the passage into Diagon Alley. Even before the wall had finished rearranging, Harry was striding off down the street.

Gringotts was mostly empty and Harry had no problem in finding a goblin to change the remainder of Karkaroff's money into wizard money. Harry wished he could enter his safe but his key was in his trunk. 'Next time', he promised himself, 'I'm going to carry around some money in case I ever get kidnapped by a crazy Death Eater again'. Hopefully he wouldn't be but you never know, especially if you're Harry Potter.

Sirius was about to breath his last when the pathway he and James were lying in suddenly shuddered and darkened to a stormy black. James, inconsolable, hardly noticed until he was suddenly thrown sideways from the motion and Sirius rolled to the opposite side. James stood and tried to reach his friend's body but the floor was weaving, the entire tunnel twisting as though in great pain and he was thrashed around. The walls were also thinning again and James could see forests and mountains. Fighting his way from the edge back towards Sirius, he eventually managed to grasp Sirius' arm but before he could get a better grip, the floor buckled and he was thrown backwards into the wall, which collapsed beneath him, sending him spinning off into the abyss. Sirius, about to leave the dark house and run into the dazzling sunshine within his memory, was pulled back from the edge by the first jolt. The voice crying 'Sirius' for a moment became louder, but then faded again and disappeared. Also the blazing light was dimming and he tried desperately to run towards it but it was slipping away and James was leaving him again. He called but no sound came out but a strangled gasp. The world was spinning and the edges were closing in, he couldn't escape. Then there was a feeling of nothingness… he was falling. Down, down…into the black.

The apothecary was empty when Harry walked in, the jingle of the bell bringing the shopkeeper eagerly to the front at the chance of a sale. Evidently the school rush had not started yet and business was slow. Upon seeing Harry though, he narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he took in the boy's bedraggled Muggle clothes and cap shading his face.

"Can I help you?" The shopkeeper asked.

Harry fished around in his pocket looking for money.

"How much is a tub of floo powder?"

"I'm afraid we're fresh out unfortunately, you'll have to look elsewhere. I suggest Knockturn Alley." A defiant expression settled on the shopkeeper's features and Harry could see him gripping his wand. He sighed and pulled off his cap, the effect was instantaneous.

"Mr Potter! I'm so sorry, I didn't recognise you, I thought you were…well, you can never be too careful these days eh?" The shopkeeper gave a nervous chuckle. "A tub of floo powder? Of course, what size would you require?"

He indicated to a selection of different tubs on the shelf behind him. Harry pointed at a medium sized one and the he took it down and placed it in a brown paper bag.

"Would Mr Potter require anything else? Any school supplies? You're in early this year sir, if you don't mind me saying."

"No, that's all thank you." Harry did not feel inclined to explain, as it would probably take a lot of quick thinking and plausible lying, when all he wanted was a hot bath and a decent meal. If he told the man he'd been kidnapped by a mad Death-Eater who happened to be the former headmaster of a well-known magic school, he would either be considered crazy, or a liar or the story would be all over the papers by this time tomorrow and Harry had had more than enough of that over the past few years. The shopkeeper was obviously disappointed with this lack of information but hid it well.

"Right, of course, here we are, three galleons please."

Harry paid then pulled his cap back on before leaving the shop. Now he had to find a fireplace. There were several around the corner, especially designed for people travelling to Diagon Alley via floo powder as well as an area for witches and wizards to apparate. There was no one else around and Harry walked over to the nearest grate, prising the lid off the floo powder and taking a handful of the small grains. He threw it into the fire which immediately leapt up to head height, and after taking a last looked round to make sure nobody was watching, took off his cap and glasses, which he stuffed into a pocket, then clearly said 'The Three Broomsticks, Hogsmead.' Walking forward into the flames, he closed his eyes and with a whoosh had disappeared.

Madam Rosmerta had just finished the lunchtime shift and was stacking glasses when a crash from the direction of the upstairs fireplace made her start and drop several mugs onto the floor. Mending the breakages with a sweep of her wand, she turned and marched upstairs, ready to give an earful to whoever had flooed into her best parlour, probably spreading soot everywhere while they were at it. Throwing the door open, she came across the site of a slightly dazed Harry, who'd used too much floo powder and gone skidding across the floor into a couple of chairs. Rosmerta gasped at the sight of him, this filthy sixteen year old who looked more and more like James every time she saw him. Not his eyes though, made even greener by the removal of his glasses and blacked face, Lily's eyes, a girl who frequently came to the Three Broomsticks with her friends and was always ready with a smile and "Hello." Deciding that questions could wait, the witch hurried over to Harry and helped him up, using a cleaning spell to remove the worst the worst of the soot.

"Madam Rosmerta! I'm sorry, you're the only person I could think of, I…"

He was hushed by the bustling witch, who rearranged his jacket and tried to smooth down his hair. Harry tried again.

"I'm sorry about the mess, I always have trouble with floo powder."

She looked at him kindly, "Don't worry about it, I can't stand the stuff either, completely ruins my hair. Come on, sit down."

She ushered him to a cream sofa which Harry was hesitant to sit on considering the state of his clothes but Madam Rosmerta pushed him down then left, calling over her shoulder, "You stay there while I just shut the bar, and then you can tell me why you came crashing through my fireplace, eh?" She winked then disappeared. Harry leant back and closed his eyes, relief at getting there in one piece and Madam Rosmerta thankfully not being angry at his unannounced arrival washing over him. Smiling gratefully at the chance to recollect his thoughts, he listened to the tapping of Madam Rosmerta's heels as she shut up The Three Broomsticks and locked the front door. By the time she reappeared bearing butterbeer and sandwiches, Harry had decided that the only way was to tell her the truth, however crazy it sounded.

For several minutes, the only sounds were Harry hastily eating as many sandwiches as he could and the soft chiming of the carriage clock on the mantelpiece. Rosmerta watched Harry, dying to ask questions but realising that Harry needed to tell his story in his own time. Eventually, Harry finished chewing and sat looking at the rose carpet, a bit embarrassed at appearing so greedy but glancing up into Madam Rosmerta's eyes, all he saw was concern.

"Harry…"

He felt pressure on his arm and looked down at Madam Rosmerta's long red nails, the several rings on her fingers flashing in the afternoon sun. He didn't know where to start.

"Harry," she repeated. He looked up again and she smiled. "Tell me what happened."

And he did, the whole story starting with the Weasleys not arriving to pick him up, all the way through to waking up in a deserted mansion after having been kidnapped by Karkaroff. Harry reached the part where he bought floo powder,

"I used one of the fireplaces in Diagon Alley and flooed here, I didn't know what else to do. I need to find some way of contacting Professor Dumbledore."

Madam Rosmerta had listened in horrified silence apart from gasping at the mention of Karkaroff's name, she evidently remembered him being around during the Triwizard Tournament. She then surprised Harry by clasping him to her and repeatedly saying, "You poor thing, you poor, poor boy." Her strong perfume was beginning to make his eyes water by the time she let him go, but Harry was thankful that at last somebody believed him, after so many times previously being called a liar.

She dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief, leaving slight smudges from her mascara, but she was smiling.

"Well, at least you are alright now. We need to send a letter to Professor Dumbledore, he's a brilliant man, and you can stay here free of charge until everything is sorted, is that okay?"

Harry nodded and thanked her profusely, but she brushed it aside, "It's the least I can do after all you've been through." Harry was worried that she'd clasp him to herself again but instead she stood up, her manner becoming business-like.

"I have an owl but she's away on a delivery at the minute so we'll have to get you one from the post office, it'll be closed by now so we'll have to go first thing in the morning."

Harry suddenly remembered why he was there.

"The problem is though, I need to get to a cave in the hillside outside the village. I said I'd meet the Weasleys there if they got my letter."

Madam Rosmerta looked puzzled. "A cave? Why would you want to meet there?"

Harry shrugged, he felt the part about Sirius not actually being an escaped murderer, as well as being too painful to go into, was also a bit too much for Madam Rosmerta to take. "We found it while exploring a couple of years ago and it's been a kind of secret hideout."

"I hope you don't sneak out of school, especially during times like these. Though considering who your father was, I'm hardly surprised," she replied disapprovingly, but the twinkle in her eyes gave away her amusement. "It's still light, we could go now and see if they're there if you want?"

Harry nodded and rose from the sofa, the leftover sandwiches on the plate reminding him of sending food to Sirius while he was hiding in the cave with Buckbeak. He wondered where the Hippogriff was now, probably still in Grimmauld Place unless Dumbledore had given him back to Hagrid to look after. Suddenly what she had just said filtered through his musings.

"What?" Harry exclaimed, "No, it's okay, you have the pub to run. I can go on my own. You've done enough for me."

Rosmerta stopped clearing away the butterbeer bottles and stood with her hands on her hips. "Mr Potter, there is no way I'm going to let you go gallivanting around the countryside on your own, no matter how capable you are to look after yourself," she said, correctly interpreting the annoyed expression on Harry's face, "Especially now You-Know-Who is back and you've already been kidnapped once! I'm coming with you and that is final."

The steely look she gave him challenged him to continue arguing but Harry stopped himself. His main concern had been about revealing the location of Snuggle's Cave but he supposed sadly that it didn't really matter any more. While following Madam Rosmerta down the wooden stairs, Harry reflected that she could probably give Mrs Weasley a run for her money when it came to being stubborn.

Harry and Madam Rosmerta walked through Hogsmeade to the outskirts, seeing nobody on the way. It was a mild day with a good breeze blowing but apart from the rustling of the trees there were no other sounds. Harry, used to being in Hogsmeade with hundreds of other Hogwarts pupils all trying to be heard over each other thought this was strange, even creepy.

"Is it usually this quiet?" He eventually asked. Rosmerta looked around as though she hadn't particularly noticed.

"This time of year? No noisy school kids for a start," she gave Harry another wink, "but now you mention it, it is very quiet. Some people have left though, the news of You-Know-Who rising again was too much for those that lost people last time." Her voice was barely a whisper and she turned to Harry with fresh tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry about your parents Harry, they were good people. They didn't deserve…what happened. Nobody did."

Harry, used to hearing people saying that though he was, felt his heart constrict as it always did when somebody mentioned his parents. They continued in silence until they reached the edge of the village and climbed over the stile. Walking through the long grass, Madam Rosmerta having a bit of trouble with her heels catching hidden bumps, towards the stone outcrop which contained Snuggle's Cave, Harry considered what she had said about his father. In his third year when he had overheard her conversation with the Hogwarts professors about Sirius, he got the impression that she knew them well. If she knew James and Sirius, perhaps she knew his mother as well.

"Madam Rosmerta, can you tell me about my parents?"

She looked surprised for a few seconds but soon smiled.

"Of course, and call me Rosmerta, none of this Madam stuff."

Harry grinned back. Rosmerta chuckled.

"The first time I saw your mother, Lily, she was furious with some boys in her year called James and Sirius who apparently had ambushed her and her friends on the way here from the school and jumped out at them from the Forbidden Forest wearing Halloween costumes, frightening them so much one of her friends tried to climb a tree and got stuck half way up it. It took them about two hours to get her down again. I think those two were the bane of hers and many other students' lives with their eternal mischief making. They were well liked though, hung around with two other boys, Remus and Peter. Remus came back a year or two ago, he taught at your school actually."

Harry flinched at the mention of Peter, but made a noise of assent, concentrating on the uneven grown and smiling at the thought of his dad and Sirius jumping out from behind a tree dressed as werewolves.

"I know Remus is a werewolf, but I remember him as the sweet boy who always tried to be a calming influence on the other two. You would never have guessed he was really a dangerous animal."

"Only on the full moon though, and if he takes Wolfbane Potion he isn't dangerous."

Rosmerta realised that she'd hit a sore point and hastened to make amends.

"Of course, it's amazing what they come up with these days, and when I saw him again he was just as cordial as ever, though he looked very ill. Must be the side affects of…"

She looked sideways at Harry, who decided to let the matter drop. He didn't blame her, if he himself didn't know a werewolf and knew that they were really only dangerous once every month, then he'd probably hold a prejudiced view against them too. It's what the wizarding community had grown up with.

"Did they go into The Three Broomsticks a lot then?" he asked. Rosmerta looked relieved that Harry hadn't taken further offence.

"Yes, they were always in there, most of the time when they should have been at school I might add but I so loved hearing about their stories, and they were so charming too. Always buying butterbeer and disappearing with it back along whichever secret passage they used to get here I expect."

Rosmerta laughed out loud at Harry's expression.

"I don't know why you look so shocked, I went to Hogwarts too you know. Many years ago mind you but I still got to know one or two of the castle's secrets, including one of the secret passages some boys in my year stumbled across. I don't know if it's still open, it was behind a mirror."

"No, it's caved in now," Harry told her, though he was impressed that she knew about it. Having had access to the Marauder's Map and the unmatched wealth of knowledge which was the Weasley twins, Harry hadn't thought about other people before them looking for and finding the alternative ways out of the castle, though now he thought about it considering how long the castle had been there for and the number of pupils it must have had residing in it, all the passages must have been found at one time or another. They had reached the bottom of the stone outcrop and begun to climb up a faint path between the boulders. Rosmerta looked wistful.

"Yes, I remember clearly my time in Hufflepuff."

Harry smiled, he didn't know what he was going to end up doing when he left school, but he knew he'd never forget his seven years of being a Gryffindor.

They climbed higher and Harry pulled out his wand, Madam Rosmerta copying him. There shouldn't be any way Voldemort or his Death Eaters had ever heard of Snuggle's Cave but Moody's repeated warnings of 'constant vigilance' echoed in Harry's ears. Perhaps if he'd taken more notice of this advice when he walked out of Privet Drive, he wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place.

Treading carefully around rocks and tree roots, they eventually came to the entrance of the cave and Harry halted, listening carefully for any noise but all he could hear was the whistling wind. Rosmerta was out of breath with the climbing and fanning herself furiously with her handkerchief, looked around the area then back down at Hogsmeade laid out below them. Harry thought it looked like a toy village and spotted the tilting roof of the Shrieking Shack to one side. Rosmerta turned back to Harry, who was satisfied that there was no one else there.

"I've never been this far up here before," Rosmerta said as she refolded her handkerchief and placed it back up her sleeve, "Are there a lot of caves?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know, we only came here a few times then decided that it was too far for us to walk. There could be I suppose."

Before Rosmerta got round to mentioning anything about it being a good hiding place for escaped convicts, he motioned for her to follow him inside. She hobbled in, her shoes obviously taking their toll and sat gingerly on a rock just inside the entrance, taking one heel off and rubbing her toes. Harry looked at her sparkly red stilettos and shook his head in incomprehension. Why women wore shoes that did that to their feet never ceased to amaze him. Aunt Petunia always wore heels even when she was just doing the housework.

Turning his attention back to the cave, he took in the old animal bones scattered in one corner and the scattered grass and heather. Madam Rosmerta sneezed in the musty air, "It looks like something has made a nest in here," she said, her voice echoing slightly. Harry shut his eyes against the painful memories and resolutely turned his back. Now wasn't the time to break down.

"There's nothing here," he declared. Rosmerta replaced her shoe and looked up at him. "What do you want to do now?" Harry sighed, why was nothing ever simple? Rosmerta stood up and clasped his shoulders reassuringly.

"Never mind, I'm sure they'll turn up eventually. How about we wait outside for a bit? Hmm?"

Harry nodded and they walked back outside, squinting as they emerged from the gloom of the cave into the afternoon sun.

"Shall we go to the top, seen as we're already half way up? Can you apparate yet?" Rosmerta asked. Harry shook his head.

"Not for another year, though things would be a lot easier if I could. No more using the floo network for one thing."

She smirked, "Well, it looks like we'll have to get there the old-fashioned way then."

Twenty minutes later they reached the top and looked out over the Scottish scenery. Harry could see Hogwarts in the distance and a brief glitter of water from the Great Lake. Even in the height of summer, the Forbidden Forest looked dark and uninviting. Rosmerta noticed where he was looking.

"I've only been in there once, for a bet in my sixth year. I got about ten metres then ran out screaming, convinced I'd seen a vampire. Turned out it was Professor Stranlov looking for wild mushrooms."

While they waited they watched the sun go down and Rosmerta entertained him with stories from her time at Hogwarts, including one about her head of year who always managed to turn up when you were breaking a rule and nobody ever found out how she managed it. Harry thought she sounded remarkably like Mr Filtch. Eventually it was getting too cold to remain sat on the exposed hilltop and Madam Rosmerta suggested that they come back tomorrow and try again after they'd sent Dumbledore's letter.

"I can't drag you up here again," Harry told Rosmerta, "I'll come by myself."

"Harry, I said before-

"I know, and I appreciate you coming up here with me but look, no bad guys," he said, turning around and indicating the empty countryside. "You need to keep your pub open otherwise people will want to know why it's suddenly been shut."

Rosmerta rolled her eyes and accepted his help in getting her to her feet again. They were about to set off back down the slope when Harry spotted the shape of a bird flying towards them. It could have been an owl for anybody in the village, or even not an owl at all but something made him stand there and watch its approach. When it got closer, Harry recognised the white plumage of Hedwig and grinned broadly as she raced towards him.

She landed on his arm with a screech, he knew she was annoyed at him disappearing but also excited about finding him again. A sharp nip on the ear confirmed this.

"I'm sorry Hedwig, I didn't leave you on purpose."

"What a beautiful owl," sighed Rosmerta, smiling when Hedwig graciously allowed her to stroke her feathers.

"I've got to ask you a favour though," Harry softly told the owl, "Can you fly to Dumbledore for me and give him this note?" He pulled it out of his pocket and waited for Hedwig to either go into a huff or allow him to tie the parchment to her leg. Luckily she did the latter and Harry fixed it on with a piece of string.

"If he's not at Hogwarts it doesn't matter, you've already flown far enough today. I'll get a post owl to deliver it tomorrow."

Hedwig looked indignant that Harry would even think of using another owl and as though to prove her strength she immediately launched off Harry's arm and silently glided off across the village towards Hogwarts, it's lights twinkling in the gathering dusk.

Harry and Rosmerta returned down the stony path they'd walked up earlier. When they reached the bottom they wove their way back across the field, Rosmerta taking off her shoes after she stumbled for the fifth time. Harry suddenly remembered the paper he'd picked up that morning in the Leaky Cauldron.

"What happened at the orphanage?" he asked Rosmerta, who was silent for so long he wasn't sure she'd heard him. He was about to ask again when she suddenly spoke.

"It's happening again. Last time was terrible, people frightened to leave their homes, not knowing who was on whose side. Neighbours turned against neighbours, families turned against themselves, everybody suspected everybody else. The murders and all the cover ups that had to be created so that the Muggles never suspected."

Harry shivered; the night suddenly seemed much colder. Nobody had ever explained what living during the last war between Voldemort and the Light was like. Mr Weasley had mentioned it when Harry first asked about the Dark Mark at the Quidditch Cup but those witches and wizards old enough to remember often didn't want to. Rosmerta took a deep breath and fixed Harry with a penetrating look, not unlike Dumbledore when he particularly wanted to get a message across.

"Parents demanded their children's return from Hogwarts and Professor Dumbledore battled hard to convince them that Hogwarts was the safest place for them if they stayed within the school boundaries where the warding spells would protect them." Her voice was now barely a whisper.

"Occasionally those from Muggle families never came back."

Harry stared, horrified. It could happen again, so easily, the Muggle parents of those who went to Hogwarts now obviously wouldn't know much about Voldemort and the exact same thing would occur. But this time, who could stop him?

"Harry, people lived in permanent fear, wondering if it was going to be them who were next, wondering if it was their house and their family that they would come home to find destroyed, the mark of You-Know-Who, a death mask, in the sky above it. I never want to live through that again."

They walked back to The Three Broomsticks in silence.

Harry woke early the following morning and looked around the bedroom Rosmerta had shown him, to see if Hedwig had returned. It was empty so Dumbledore must have been somewhere else apart from Hogwarts. Harry wished that he had his trunk so he could look at the framed photograph of his parents, swirling forever amongst the autumn leaves. If only life could be paused in the same way, a perfect moment that remained unchanged forever. But life wasn't like that, he thought bitterly, life was full of pain and death and there was nothing he could do to change it.

He got out of bed and shut the window left open for Hedwig and studied the view across the back garden of the Three Broomsticks. There were several picnic tables people could sit at and enjoy their drinks in the sunshine but it was empty now apart from a black and white cat stalking a leaf through the flowerbeds. He quite missed Crookshanks and his oddly squashed face. Cats were the mortal enemy of Aunt Petunia, along with her other immense dislikes: slugs, snails and Harry, which was part of the reason why he liked them. He thought Rosmerta was more the type to go out and pet it though rather than chase it out of the garden with a rake and sure enough, Harry heard the back door open and Madam Rosmerta placing a saucer of cream on the floor. 'Why would anyone want to destroy this?' Harry thought. It was all about power, that's all Voldemort wants, and to destroy everything in his way. Harry turned away from the window and began to get dressed.

Downstairs he met Rosmerta coming in from the kitchen.

"Would you like some breakfast?" she asked, "I've made a bit of everything as I didn't know what you liked."

Silenced by this generosity from somebody he'd never really spoken to before yesterday, he let himself be ushered to one of the tables. Nobody else was staying at the pub so Rosmerta joined him and asked him about what Hogwarts was like now, often forgetting to eat as Harry recounted the full version of the Philosopher's Stone, the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets (tactfully leaving out Ginny's name, just saying that it was a girl from one of the younger years who had been involved) and the Triwizard Tournament. Being behind the bar, Rosmerta had heard a lot of different theories and stories from customers, and of course the Daily Prophet but as often the case, the truth is stranger than fiction.


	11. Back to Hogwarts

Back To Hogwarts

Harry helped Rosmerta clear away the dishes then whilst she opened up and prepared for the day's work, he walked out of the back door into the garden. The cat had disappeared but a couple of birds fluttered amongst the trees, chirping to each other. He sat down in the centre of the grass then lay back with a sigh and shut his eyes, letting the warmth of the sun wash over him. He let his mind wander over the events of yesterday and hoped Dumbledore would be able to see him soon and tell him what on earth was going on, where Karkaroff had appeared from for a start and what was going on in the wizarding world. Had the Death Eaters, including Draco's father, been sentenced to Azkaban or had they gotten off once again, claiming they had been under the influence of the Imperious curse. Harry clenched his fists and glared up at the bright blue sky. They had better not have been let go again, Sirius had died and it was their fault but especially Bellatrix Lestrange's. It was her shot that had made his godfather fall backwards into the veil; it was because of her he never really got to know Sirius. She was going to die for that, a life for a life.

James screamed as he fell backwards through black clouds cracking with thunder and the pathway above him was lost from view. He broke through the storm and saw for a second, towering iron-grey waves beneath him crashing onto a sandy shore lit by the fleeting flash of lightning. The next instant he'd hit the water, plunging beneath the thundering sea and was dragged down by the swell then thrown forward and he hit the beach with force, the gritty sand scouring his face and hands before being hauled backwards by the next wave. When he was thrown forward again, he scrambled up the sand, coughing up salt water. Rain battered against his skull, feeling like a thousand sharp needles were being hammered into him. James staggered to his feet and spun round wildly.

"Sirius! Sirius! Padfoot, can you hear me? Sirius?"

His yells faded into the storm and desperation overcame him as he ran down the beach calling his friend's name. He tried to wade back into the sea but the sheer walls of water pushed him back again and again. Eventually he sunk to his knees, sobbing in defeat as the downpour beat upon him. The image of Lily, his beautiful Lily, waving goodbye to them was etched upon his mind, her auburn hair set aflame by the rays of the setting sun, tears running down her cheeks.

Sirius was barely aware of the pathway falling away from beneath him, cold air whipping past his face as he plunged downwards into another world. There was a storm here too; the thunder deafening him as it crashed across the sky with lighting bolts splintering before it. He hit the surface of a flooded river, the shock of the freezing water jolting him into awareness. His coat soon became a heavy weight dragging him under and he floundered in the rapidly moving water, occasionally hitting broken branches and other debris being carried along. Sirius eventually managed to manoeuvre to one of the banks and pull himself out onto rocks, still clutching his wand and there he lay, his senses in shock from the fall and cold.

"James?" He croaked. He looked around but it was too dark to see anything and the thunder and roaring of the river blocked out any other noises. He started to cry as the full implications of what had happened hit him. James and he had been thrown out of the pathway into other people's worlds, lost for eternity with no hope of finding each other or Lily again. Lily, he'd taken away her husband and now she and James would never see each other again, it was his entire fault. His previously silent tears turned into agonised howls, swallowed by the otherworldly storm raging above him.

Harry was so caught up in thoughts of revenge that he did not notice Rosmerta until she tapped his on his left shoulder, making him start. He'd whipped out his wand and was on his feet before he realised whom he was pointing it at. Harry stared then realised he was still threatening her with it and quickly put it back into his jeans pocket, looking sheepish.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you come out," he had the grace to look embarrassed. Madam Rosmerta dropped the look of surprise and chuckled, smiling at the look on the teenage boy's face in front of her.

"Don't be, I see you have a Seeker's reflexes! I just wondered if you wanted a drink of anything? Lemonade?" She gestured to a jug full of homemade lemonade and ice on the nearest picnic table. Harry grinned and nodded, grateful that Rosmerta had not been offended by his reaction. He sat on the opposite side of her, under the shade of the parasol and took a long drink from the glass offered.

"This is amazing, Rosmerta!"

Rosmerta looked very proud of herself.

"Made the Muggle way, sometimes things just aren't as good when they're conjured by magic."

Harry grinned, "You should serve this during summer when we come here on a weekend, it'd disappear in seconds!"

"I might well do that!" she laughed, "It'd get you lot into less mischief than butterbeer for a start!"

Harry smirked then watched his ice swirl around in the glass. He missed Hogwarts and his fellow Gryffindors, especially Ron and Hermione. It was a physical ache inside him and he let out a sigh, life was so unfair. Rosmerta noticed his expression.

"What's up Harry?"

"Nothing, I…I just wish all this could be over so I can just get on with life without always wondering what horrible thing is going to happen next."

"We all do. You gave freedom from You-Know-Who for thirteen years, what you did affected people's lives so much Harry. You gave us hope again don't ever forget that. Others may make you think that you're nothing special but you are, you changed the world."

Harry looked up, pain evident in his green eyes.

"No, I'm not the one who changed it, it was my mother dying for me that destroyed Voldemort and now he's back and more people have died, more will die and I can't do anything about it!" His chest heaved as he fought to keep back the tears. He was not going to cry again, he was going to use his pain and turn it to anger, anger against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, anger against the Ministry for doing nothing apart from remove Dumbledore and turn Hogwarts into a prison, anger against being so helpless. Rosmerta rushed around the bench and sat next to Harry, clasping his shoulders and turning him to face her.

"Harry! Harry, look at me!"

Harry took a deep breath and slowly met her gaze. He could see pity and instantly stiffened; he did not want anybody's pity. Rosmerta did not flinch from his anger.

"You're wrong, we can all make a difference in our own way, however small a selfless act may seem. Yes, your parents made the ultimate sacrifice for you but that doesn't mean you are worthless, it means you were deeply loved and meant everything to Lily and James. Keep true to yourself Harry and carry that self belief with you because if you won't, who will?"

Harry closed his eyes and brought the photo of his parents to mind. They had died for him and he was going to make that worthwhile.

"Harry."

He looked up at Rosmerta and she replied by indicating towards the back door. Turning around he saw Albus Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall step out into the sunshine; Hedwig perched on the headmaster's arm.

"Ah, there you are," smiled Dumbledore, "I was afraid we had lost you again but thankfully not. Madam Rosmerta, it is as ever a great pleasure," he bowed and kissed Rosmerta's hand. Professor McGonagall fanned herself with a piece of parchment as she nodded hello to Rosmerta then surveyed Harry over her glasses.

"Potter, thank Merlin we found you!"

Harry was surprised to see relief in her eyes; he was expecting them both to be furious with him for leaving Privet Drive. He dropped his eyes to Hedwig who had flown onto his wrist and was chirruping quietly.

Rosmerta waved them to sit down, "I'll bring out some more refreshments." Dumbledore looked grave. "As loath I am to leave without sampling your delightful cooking I am afraid we have to go back to Hogwarts as soon as possible and make sure Harry has fully recovered from his ordeal and to get him back to a place of safety."

Rosmerta nodded and Harry stood up, turning to her.

"Thanks for letting me stay, I don't know what I could have done if you hadn't been here," he told her earnestly. At least she was not as quick to believe the rubbish in the Daily Prophet as readily as a lot of other wizards and witches were.

She pulled him into a hug and chuckled as Hedwig screeched and ruffled her feathers. "That's no problem Harry, please come back and see me soon, if it's safe to of course."

McGonagall touched his shoulder, "Come on Harry, we've got a lot to talk about."

Harry brought his trunk down from upstairs and waved goodbye to Rosmerta before joining Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall outside. Dumbledore waved his wand and levitated the trunk to follow behind them as they made their way up the road to Hogwarts, Harry wondering where to start with his explanation about where he'd been since he left Private Drive. Before he could think of something to say though, Dumbledore came out of his reverie.

"Why did you run away Harry?"

A glimpse of anger flared in Harry's eyes, the smug gloating faces of the Dursleys appearing before him. "They insulted Sirius."

Dumbledore remained silent while McGonagall hesitantly put her hand on Harry's shoulder, relaxing slightly when he didn't immediately flinch away.

"Still Harry," she said, "you gave us quite a fright."

"I couldn't stay there any longer, I just couldn't."

They walked on in silence until the imposing castle of Hogwarts came into view, looking warm and welcoming. Harry knew this was his home, not the prison cell of Private Drive. He suddenly remembered something and looked at his Head of House and Headmaster.

"Why didn't Mr and Mrs Weasley turn up?"

"The Burrow was attacked by Voldemort's followers," replied Dumbledore gravely.

"WHAT!" Harry stopped dead. "Are they okay? What happened? Where are they?" Harry's panic increased as he imagined The Burrow torn apart by Deatheaters and the bodies of the Weasleys lying in the wreckage.

"Harry, calm down, they're absolutely fine, apart from being frantic about you of course, and as Mr Weasley is eager to tell you all about it himself, I'll leave the details to him."

Harry was almost faint with relief and even grinned at the thought of Ron bursting to tell him what happened, and nobody being able to find him. A thought struck Harry, "Don't you want to know about Karkaroff?" he asked. Dumbledore looked down from where he was studying the stars.

"Yes, eventually but I think that it should wait until we meet the others and are in a secure environment before events are told."

The second they walked into Dumbledore's office, all Harry saw before several people piled on him was a blur of red hair. Mrs Weasley seemed very unwilling to let him go, even when Dumbledore was sat in his seat and coughed politely to indicate they should begin. Eventually Mr Weasley managed to prise her off him and Harry staggered over to a chair next to where Ron and Ginny were sat with mingled looks of embarrassment of their mother's behaviour and amusement at Harry's expression on their faces.

"Hey Harry," said Ron, "Good summer then?"

Harry smirked, "It's been okay, nothing exciting."

Dumbledore let them settle down before indicating to Harry that he should begin. Harry looked down at his hands and tried to sort everything out before hesitantly beginning his story.

"Well, the day you were meant to pick me up from Private Drive," Ron opened his mouth to explain but closed it again when Dumbledore looked at him, "One at a time Mr Weasley, everything shall be told in due course." He turned back to Harry and indicated that he should continue.

"Umm, yeah, like I said, I was waiting for the Weasleys to pick me up but when they didn't come I went back inside. My uncle and I had an argument and I took my stuff and left the house, walking to the park nearby. There Karkaroff stupefied me and when I woke up, I was on a bed in a ruined old house. Karkaroff came in, he was crazy, muttering to himself and rubbing the Dark Mark on his arm and he was a mess, stains all down his front and things. Suddenly he shrieked and ran off, oh yeah, I tripped on a mirror and it smashed so he ran off down the corridor leaving the door open."

He paused to take a breath, Ron was sitting with his mouth open in amazement and Ginny had an incredulous look on her face. Mr Weasley and Professor McGonagall were both raising eyebrows in surprise whilst Mrs Weasley looked mutinous, taking deep breaths. Professor Dumbledore showed no signs of shock, instead just studying Harry intently over his half-moon glasses. Harry cleared his throat.

"I ran down the drive to the road and tried to summon the Knight Bus but all that appeared was a sign saying that 'the service had been momentarily suspended'."

This evidently was common knowledge amongst the rest of them because nobody said anything.

"I decided to go back to the house seen as Karkaroff didn't seem to be much of a threat and wait until morning. I wrote the letter I sent to The Burrow, did you get it?" Ron nodded, "Yeah, I wondered what the hell it was." Ginny started laughing, "Gave him quite a fright, he started yelling about another Death Eater attack." Harry laughed as Ron turned bright red and told his sister to shut up. She replied by giving him a look, which clearly said 'make me', and Harry hastened to finish his part so he could find out what had been happening at The Burrow.

"I didn't see Karkaroff again before leaving and walking to a main road and catching a bus to Guildford. I got a train to London, went into Diagon Alley and bought some floo powder before travelling to The Three Broomsticks. And that's it," he finished with a look at the others. Mr Weasley was the first to speak.

"Why would Karkaroff come back to this country when he ran away after the Triwizard Tournament?

"Presumably he thought that by kidnapping Harry, he could return to Voldemort with a chance of being forgiven instead of being hunted down and murdered by loyal Death Eaters in another country," answered Dumbledore, "Though I'm inclined to think that he would have been killed anyway. The strain of being chased by Voldemort's supporters has evidently taken its toll on Karkaroff's state of mind. I've alerted the Order and they are currently searching for Professor Karkaroff. He seems to have left the address you were held at Harry, but hopefully he has not fled the country again."

"So what happened at The Burrow then?" asked Harry. Mr Weasley's expression grew grim and Mrs Weasley wiped a few angry tears from her cheek before taking a shaky breath.

"Somebody obviously knew we were going to pick you up and told You-Know-Who. They were lying in wait for us to bring you back but the Order had found this out at the last minute and turned up just before we left. There was a short fight and the Death Eaters all apparated away. We sent Errol to reassure you but he must have arrived at Private Drive after you left. Honestly! Death Eaters in my back garden! I've never been so angry…" She subsided into indignant huffing.

Mr Weasley patted her hand. "Then we found out that you'd gone missing!"

"Indeed," said Dumbledore, "It was the following day when Mrs Figg alerted us of your disappearance. Your aunt and uncle had no idea where you'd gone and were quite rude about it. I see you made a bit of a mess of the kitchen, Harry." His blue eyes twinkled in amusement. "Remus found your trunk in a Muggle park further up the road and we assumed the worst, that you had been kidnapped by Voldemort."

Everybody apart from Harry flinched but Harry didn't notice, he was too busy taking all of it in. They must have intercepted Pig's message about when the Weasleys were going to pick him up and set an ambush up around The Burrow. The thought of him being the reason why they attacked made his stomach churn. There was also Hermione, was she in any increased danger from Voldemort now he was back in power, especially since she was muggle-born and one of his best friends? Professor Dumbledore seemed to know what he was feeling because he leant forward and said to Harry and Ron,

"Miss Granger is being guarded at home and she will be escorted to Hogwarts tomorrow. Unfortunately, things are taking much longer now the Knight Bus and the floo network have been suspended. Harry looked surprised. "But I came through the floo network to Hogsmeade."

"Yes, you were very lucky because the Ministry closed it apart from certain approved cases the following day. Why they'd think Death Eaters would use the Knight Bus to travel the country is beyond me but it is what the Minister of Magic sees fit. Anyway, I think that is enough for one evening, may I offer you rooms Arthur, Molly? For the night is getting quite late. I think in the circumstances, you three had better stay at Hogwarts for the remainder of the holidays. Grimmauld Place has seemed to have sealed itself against us for the time being."

Harry hung his head. He could not have gone back there anyway, it would have been far too painful. Mr Weasley clasped his shoulder and he stood up and followed the others out leaving Professor Dumbledore sat behind his desk, his face flickering in the candlelight.


	12. Hope

Hope 

Harry, Ron and Ginny walked down the familiar corridors to the Gryffindor common room after leaving Mr and Mrs Weasley, who went to the guest rooms. They were walking in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Harry could not believe that they were allowed to stay at Hogwarts for the remaining weeks before the autumn term started. He had been half afraid of being made to go back and live with the Dursleys but now Hogwarts was the temporary headquarters of the Order this thankfully was not to be the case. Ron was thinking about how much he wanted to eat something and Ginny was wondering if they were allowed to play Quidditch down on the school pitch.

They turned a corner and walked up to the portrait of the Fat Lady who was having an animated discussion with Violet about the recent goings on at Hogwarts. Ginny suddenly stopped and Ron, who was muttering about sausages, crashed into her.

"Ginny! What the hell did you just stop for?" Cried Ron as he staggered sideways into Harry.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Well we don't know the password do we?"

The Fat Lady and her friend had stopped talking to watch the three students in front of them with interest. Harry walked up to them.

"Do we need a password?" He asked the painting, "You know we're students, me and Ron have been at Hogwarts for five years so you should recognise us."

The Fat Lady did not look impressed. "Just because somebody has been here for years, it doesn't give them exemption from needing to say the password. If I let you in, everybody else will be wanting to come in without knowing the password and I might as well just be a piece of wood!" She sniffed derisively and the witch next to her started tutting and shaking her head.

"But there is no-one else here," said Ron, "And where are we supposed to sleep if you don't let us in?"

"You should have thought of that before coming up here really, shouldn't you?"

"Come on Harry, Ron, there's always the Room of Requirement." Ginny turned and led the way back down the corridor with Ron and Harry in tow complaining about women. They quickly shut up though when she turned round and threatened to turn them into frogs and feed them to the Giant Squid.

They walked along the corridor containing the Room of Requirement three times, each thinking about somewhere to sleep and when they opened the door the room contained several four-poster beds hung with deep red drapes, with another heavy red curtain down the middle separating boys and girls. Ron and Harry sat on opposite beds whilst Ginny sat at the foot of Ron's and crossed her legs beneath her. Harry looked at them and guilt rose again in his stomach.

"I'm really sorry you know, about the attack at The Burrow." Ginny snorted and Ron sat upright from where he had been lying on his back.

"It's not your fault, mate," he said, "we knew it was risky every time you came but we couldn't leave you shut up with the Muggles all summer could we?"

"And I told mum to use a telephone in the village," added Ginny, "Hermione has told me all about them and they sound pretty straight forward but you know our mum, she doesn't trust Muggle things."

Harry was slightly mollified, "So was it Snape who tipped you off about the attack then?"

"Yeah, he only found out about it an hour or two before we were about to get you. We haven't seen anything of him since then. The alarms saying that somebody unidentified had passed through the wards went off and curses started flying, then Dumbledore, MacGonagall, Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye and Shacklebolt turned up. Mum, Dad, George and Fred were firing curses out of the windows. We wanted to help but you know, underage magic and all that." Harry smiled, it sounded like one of the spaghetti westerns he'd seen on TV briefly.

"So what are we going to do now we're living at Hogwarts for the next four weeks?" asked Ginny.

Ron shrugged and Harry considered this question. It did not really matter to him what they did as he would much rather be here than at his aunt and uncle's house.

"Homework?" Suggested Ginny, grinning.

"I've already finished most of it," said Harry, smirking at the look of amazement and horror on Ron's face.

"W…w…what?" Ron eventually managed to stutter out, "Are you mental? Summer holidays aren't supposed to when you do homework, the night before it's due in is when you do it!"

"There was nothing else to do," explained Harry, "Apart from stare at my bedroom walls or, if I got bored of that, walk around Little Whinging staring at other people's walls."

"Well, Hermione's going to be pleased with you," giggled Ginny while Ron looked appalled at the idea of being the sole recipient of her 'why don't you do some work now instead of leaving it all too late and wanting to copy mine' tirade. While Ron continued to make pained noises, Ginny's mirth faded and she looked at Harry with pity. He knew what she was about to ask and silently begged Ron to say something, anything, to stop his sister from mentioning what happened before they last left school, but to no avail.

"Harry, how are you doing, you know. Are you okay?"

"About Sirius' death you mean?" Harry said harshly, using anger to override the familiar clench of guilt and misery inside him. Ron glared at his sister, who ignored him.

"You know it wasn't your fault, you did all you could."

Harry stood up and stalked to the door, flinging it shut behind him. He knew if he stayed he would end up yelling again and he just wanted to be left alone with his grief instead of people repeatedly telling him that he wasn't to blame. He wanted to shout in frustration, hit something, let out the emotions choking him as he ran down dimly lit corridors, silent apart from the occasional clang as a suit of armour readjusted itself and the rustling whispers of the portraits hanging on the walls. Behind him he heard Ron calling his name but it faded as Harry twisted and turned, using all the short cuts he knew to be somewhere alone with his thoughts.

Eventually he slowed to a walk and recognised the stairs leading up to the Astronomy Tower, which he climbed and emerged out into the cool night air high above the shadowy lawns of Hogwarts. Bats flitted in the moonlight, the only witnesses to the tears streaming down Harry's face.

It was several hours later when Harry made his way back down from the tower and retraced his steps to the Room of Requirement. The shadowy halls were cool and he shivered as a draught of air blew over his skin when he passed a cracked windowpane. It was silent when he opened the door of his makeshift bedroom and he could dimly see the shape of Ron in the other bed. Ginny presumably was on the other side of the curtain and Harry sank back onto his pillow, glad that he did not have to say anything to either of them, for now at least.

The sound of movement woke Harry several hours later and when he sat up he saw Ron getting clothes from out of a trunk in front of him. Noticing that Harry was awake, Ron stopped and nodded slightly to him.

"You alright mate?"

Harry nodded back, "Yeah. Sorry about last night. I…"

Ron shook his head, "No need to explain. Come on, I'm absolutely starving!"

Harry grinned in relief and raised his eyebrows at the sight of his trunk sitting at the bottom of his bed.

"Where did they come from?"

Ron shrugged. "Dobby?" he suggested, pulling on a jumper. Harry made a mental note to go down to the kitchens and thank the house elf, if they could not find either McGonagall or Dumbledore to get the password then not having any fresh clothes would not have been very pleasant at all. Ginny appeared from around the curtain already dressed and smiled at Harry, who felt ashamed about last night when she had only been trying to help but she appeared to understand and instead just went over to him and gave him a hug before telling them both to hurry up. Ron stared at the retreating back of his little sister then at Harry's shocked face and, for once, decided not to say anything.

Mr and Mrs Weasley were already sat downstairs at the one table set up in the centre of the Great Hall and Harry sat next to Mr Weasley, glancing up at the ceiling that was currently bright blue with just a few wispy streaks of cloud. Harry helped himself to bacon and eggs and asked Mr Weasley what he and Mrs Weasley were going to do whilst he, Ron and Ginny were at Hogwarts.

"Well, we've still got some cleaning up to do at The Burrow, resetting of the wards and the casting of a few more as well as Order stuff."

"What Order stuff?" asked Harry eagerly.

Mr Weasley gave him a sympathetic look, "You know I can't tell you, but Molly and I will come back here quite often seen as this is now the new Head Quarters, and I expect Remus, Tonks and the others will drop by occasionally too."

Harry continued eating and hid his disappointment. Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall walked in and sat at the two set places, McGonagall in her usual green robes but Dumbledore resplendent in robes of dark red. Harry swallowed the mouthful of bacon he had been eating.

"Professor? What's the password for the Gryffindor tower?"

Professor McGonagall's eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "It's Grindylow, but where did you three sleep last night then if you couldn't get into the tower?"

"The Room of Requirement."

"What? You both and Miss Weasley!" McGonagall looked horrified at the very idea. Dumbledore however seemed to find this quite amusing, "Well, I must commend you on your resourcefulness but perhaps it's for the best that not many young romantic couples know of the existence of this room." Ron, who had been listening to this conversation, choked into his pumpkin juice whilst Harry snorted and quickly filled his mouth with toast to stop himself from laughing out loud at McGonagall's expression.

"Ron! Stop that and drink it properly. What's so amusing?" Mrs Weasley's sharp voice echoing slightly in the empty hall reminded Harry painfully of the Howler she had sent Ron at the beginning of their second year and the sudden colour change of Ron's face from pale and freckly to bright red was identical. However, he was saved from answering by the clang of the front door being shut and a familiar bushy-haired fellow Gryffindor entering the hall carrying a purring Crookshanks. Ginny leapt up and went to hug her and Dumbledore stood as well, waving his wand for another chair to appear at the table.

"I hope we find you well Miss Granger," said Dumbledore, indicating for her to sit and help herself to food. Hermione sat herself down next to Ginny, smiling at everybody.

"Hello Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Mr Weasley, Mrs Weasley, Ron, Harry."

Harry noticed her gaze lingered on him then with a sigh and a shake of her head look away to talk to Ginny. Harry rolled his eyes; it was not his fault that he could not have a quiet summer without being kidnapped.

Mr and Mrs Weasley left after breakfast, warning Ron to keep out of trouble, a fact that he ranted at length about to Harry later who privately agreed with him; Ginny might look angelic but she could be just as devious as either of the twins when she put her mind to it. Hermione it turned out had just come back from a holiday in Cornwall when she got a message from Professor Dumbledore explaining what had happened and if she would like to join Harry, Ron and Ginny at Hogwarts for the rest of the summer. They filled her in on the parts she did not know and clarified others as they sat outside on the banks of the lake under a large oak tree.

"Well, at least you weren't hurt," she said eventually to Harry, "And I'm impressed at how you thought of flooing up here. Have they caught Karkaroff yet?"

Harry shrugged, he doubted they would be hearing much about what was happening in the Order seen as it was quite a bit more difficult to overhear what was being said in the Headmaster's Office than in Grimmauld Place and they also did not have the ingeniousness of George and Fred at their disposal. He watched Ron and Ginny battle each other over a game of wizard chess for a while and they looked evenly matched. Ginny cheered as her queen hauled one of Ron's knights off the board and Harry was suddenly dazzled at the play of sunlight across her hair. He started and quickly looked away to ask Hermione if she had finished her Charms essay yet but she was gazing at the back of Ron's head with a wistful expression. Harry did not think he had ever see Hermione look wistful about anything before, apart from perhaps a new book in Flourish and Blotts and sighed. Ron could be pretty gormless sometimes but even he must realise sometime that Hermione felt more than just friendship for him. He looked back at Ginny. Did he feel more than just friendship for her? He felt a lot more comfortable around her than he had around Cho but that was because she was completely the opposite. He did not have to worry about accidentally making her cry for one thing though that was not exactly Cho's fault, but it was just easier sitting and talking to her or even just not saying anything. What would Ron think though? Hermione stood up next to him and stretched, saying she was going back to the castle to get a drink of something.

"I'll come with you," said Harry and as he strode across the grass he once again marvelled at how quite Hogwarts was when they were the only ones there. He heard Hermione sigh behind him and he slowed his pace slightly, letting her catch up.

"You're in a hurry aren't you?"

Harry smiled, "Sorry, I was just thinking about something." Hermione studied him with a serious look on her face that he knew only too well.

"Is it your scar?" she asked. Harry looked surprised, he thought she was going to ask him about Ginny but then was even more surprised when he realised that he had not felt anything but slight twinges occasionally all summer. He shook his head.

"No, I haven't felt anything from it. No more dreams." There had been dreams, dreams of Sirius falling through the veil in a flash of green but he wasn't going to talk about them. He knew what they meant without other people analysing his feelings for him. Hermione seemed to understand and did not push him and this more than anything made Harry suddenly start talking about the guilt he felt, the guilt he had kept bottled up inside ever since it had happened. Hermione said nothing, letting him talk until the words ran out. They sat at the edge of one of the long tables in the Great Hall which had been set out again and just let the silence of centuries of history envelope them. After a couple of minutes, Hermione quietly began to speak.

"Sirius wouldn't want you to blame yourself, he knew what he was doing and he died saving those he loved, fighting evil. He wasn't the sort of man who could live locked away from the world, it was probably like being in Azkaban again but instead of the Dementors reminding him constantly about the bad times in his life, it was the things at Grimmauld Place including that horrible portrait of his mother. He did everything he could to distance himself from his family and their obsession with pure blood values but despite it all he was forced to live there and take the taunts of people like Snape who made him feel worthless. It was like last summer when we couldn't tell you what had been happening but imagine if you did know what was going on and yet you still were powerless to help do anything."

Harry sat looking at her amazed. He had never though about it like that before, true he knew that Sirius had hated being cooped up in Grimmauld Place but he had had his own problems to think about. He imagined living all day every day with a portrait of his aunt and uncle shrieking at him and Hermione and Ron dropping by occasionally detailing all the dangerous things they had been doing to battle Voldemort and blanched. No wonder Sirius had been surly when they had left to go back to Hogwarts. The hard knot of guilt inside him had eased a bit though he still blamed himself for Sirius' death at least he had died in a blaze of glory instead of growing steadily more and more bitter at being denied a life.

"Ron and Ginny will be wondering where we are."

Harry nodded and glanced up at the Gryffindor banner above him shifting slightly in a breeze, making the rampant lion seem alive as it flickered between light and shadow. Sirius had been a Gryffindor, living for the thrill of danger and fighting for those he loved, and this comforted Harry slightly as he followed Hermione out of the room and down to the kitchens.

Dobby dropped the spoon he had been using to stir a saucepan when he saw Harry enter the kitchen and practically leapt on the black haired boy, hugging his leg as tightly as he could.

"Dobby is glad Harry Potter is safe!" cried the house elf, sobbing into Harry's leg, "Dobby heard bad things had happened and worried Harry Potter had been hurt but now he is here safe with Professor Dumbledore!"

Harry smiled and gently prised Dobby off, handing him the hats that had fallen off in his excitement. Looking up he noticed Hermione's eyes narrow at seeing all of her previous years' work proudly displayed in an unstable tower on top of Dobby's head and hastily asked about Winky, who was not in her usual spot next to the fireplace. Surprisingly Dobby's ears perked up instead of drooping as they usually did when asked about the unfortunate house elf.

"Winky gone to serve a family again sir!"

Harry and Hermione both looked surprised and asked how that had happened.

"Professor Dumbledore sir, he knew how unhappy Winky was and said that he knew of a family in great need of help. Winky not happy at first, said that Winky would not betray Mr Crouch but Professor Dumbledore said that this family were related distantly to Mr Crouch, Winky the happiest Dobby has ever seen."

Hermione however did not look very happy. "So she is back being a slave to wizards?"

Dobby looked at her unimpressed, "Winky is happy, miss, and you should be happy for her."

Harry privately agreed but wanted to get some drinks before she got them thrown out of the kitchen again and after a quick word with Dobby, had a glass jug of pumpkin juice and four glasses as well as a plate of pumpkin pastries and other assorted cakes presented to them. He also remembered to thank Dobby for moving their trunks the other night and was rewarded by Dobby's beaming smile before he exited through the portrait and into the corridor outside. He thought Hermione had been distracted by the news of Winky but she immediately began to question him about the hats. He sighed and shifted the plate of pastries to his other hand.

"Yes, I knew Dobby had taken them all but I didn't want to say anything. You looked like you enjoyed knitting!"

Hermione hmphed and treated Harry to a stony silence all the way back down to the lake.

James stumbled to a halt and collapsed to his knees on the sparkling white sand. Despair had been his constant companion for the pass few days, ever since he had been marooned here but he had not felt it as acutely since he saw the pathway rolling away in the sky. At first he had tried to run back into the sea and swim until he found it again but once he left the safety of the reef the waves tossed him around helplessly, a mere speck floating on the surface of the huge swell. The constant struggle against the force of nature left him completely disorientated and it was only luck that led him back to shore before he was swept out into the open ocean for the rest of eternity. Then he had been overcome and just lay on the beach in a stupor, not being able to comprehend never seeing Lily again, the woman he devoted his life to, the very reason of his existence. Death had not changed this for him, if anything it had just brought them closer together than either had previously imagined because now they were reduced to their purest essence their love for each other was all consuming.

He raised his head and looked at the paradise around him, the wide sandy beaches, the coconut-laden palm trees gleaming glossily in the sun, the flawless azure sky and the warm turquoise ocean gently lapping the shore and hated every single part of it. He wanted to burn it all down, blast it into oblivion, rip it all into shreds because this perfection just amplified how ugly it all was compared to the red haired beauty he had married and being apart from her with no apparent way of returning was driving him insane. The only thing that prevented him from tipping over the edge completely was the one flicker of hope that he would find a way back to her and that hope kept him going. He would continue to search forever if necessary, until very existence itself ceased.

Sirius ran through the trees, a black blur that ignored the scratches and cuts from countless thorns and kept running through streams, marshes, fields and over hills, only stopping when he was too exhausted to carry on. He had to keep going, to find the end where he could reach the pathway again and find James. There must be an opening somewhere like there had been at Hogwarts but though he had been running for days there was no end to the wilderness. Wild thoughts had gone through his head in the first few hours after he had pulled himself out of the river, thoughts of killing himself. Perhaps because he was not dead, he would be retuned to the world of the living where he could either enter the veil again or die properly and hopefully return to Hogwarts the way Lily and James had, then from there enter the pathway again and search for James.

He had found several plants of the highly poisonous Deadly Nightshade and forced himself to eat the bitter black berries. He knew from Potions and his own family's hoard of poisons that just a few could kill yet he ate enough to kill several men and apart from hallucinating and suffering agonising cramps he still did not die. Severely weakened he wandered aimlessly until he came to the top of a hill and looked off into the distance towards the red-stained horizon of dusk and along the edge were a bank of black clouds. These transfixed the hope in him that he could one day reach the edge of this world and find where James had been flung. Holding this fragile thought he set off into the night.

After the evening meal, at which only the four Gryffindors were present apart from Nearly Headless Nick who drifted by for a chat, Harry and Ron sat in front of the blazing fire in the common room discussing what new inventions the twins had come up with for their recently opened shop and Hermione and Ginny were filling in a quiz in the latest edition of The Quibbler – 'Is Your Best Friend A Vampire?'

"Hermione, do you have an aversion to garlic or vegetables from the onion family in general?" asked Ginny.

Hermione considered this question with mock seriousness, "Well, I must confess that I'm not that keen on raw onion."

"Do you gaze at people's necks with a hungry expression on your face?"

Hermione glanced at Ron then turned red and mumbled, "No." Ginny grinned and looked from Hermione to Ron knowingly before ticking a box with a flourish.

"And does your skin suddenly self-combust if it comes into contact with sunlight?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed loudly, "Honestly, could that magazine get any more ridiculous?"

"Now, now Hermione," tutted Ginny as she added up Hermione's score, "For all you know there could be witches and wizards out there that have no idea their best friend is a blood-sucking monster. This quiz could help make sense of all the times they've wanted to go out for a picnic and their friend's turned into a pile of ash in front of them." She finished looking up the answers and informed Hermione that she was almost definitely a vampire.

Later on when they had all gone to bed, Harry was lying wide-awake on top of his covers, watching silvery clouds drift across the moon outside. After half an hour he gave up trying to get to sleep and instead got up. Perhaps a walk would wear him out enough to get some sleep. He pulled on the invisibility cloak and padded silently from the dormitory, careful not to wake Ron. He touched his wand to the old piece of parchment he held and whispered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Thin lines of ink spread out across the surface and he could see Peeves just around the corridor seemingly swerving around in an odd parody of a waltz. He could hear the poltergeist cackling to himself and insulting some of the paintings so Harry quickly strode off in the opposite direction, slipping behind a dusty tapestry and emerging on the floor below where. Another quick glance at the map confirmed that there was nobody else around Harry slowed his pace and wondered what other secrets the impassive stone walls kept. Other rooms that appeared only if you did certain things perhaps or passageways that nobody had discovered. Hidden vaults in the foundations like the Chamber of Secrets? This train of thought led him to his father and The Marauders. How often had they haunted these same corridors? Harry promised himself to ask Lupin next time he saw him exactly what they used to get up to, what pranks they pulled and how they made The Marauder's Map. Sirius, never far from his thoughts, surfaced again and Harry silently asked his godfather for forgiveness. Forgiveness for leading him to his death, forgiveness for not allowing him to come up to Hogsmeade to see them when it would have been the first time he'd have been out of Grimmauld Place since he accompanied them to the Hogwarts Express.

Coming out of his reverie he looked around him and realised he had made his way up to the corridor containing the Room of Requirement. He stopped and stared at the blank wall. Could it be possible? Excitement grabbing him, Harry walked quickly past the wall three times, all the time concentrating every fibre of his being on thinking of a way to save Sirius. With his godfather's last moments flickering across his mind he turned and stood motionless in front of the door that had appeared in front of him. His heart pounded in his chest, blood thundered in his ears as he imagined being able to see Sirius again, bring him back to life, do the impossible. He reached out a suddenly sweaty hand and slowly turned the handle. The sight that greeted him made the blood drain from his face.


	13. Pureblood

Disclaimer: Do I have to write these in every chapter? Harry Potter isn't mine, nor is Sirius Black (unfortunately) any other character from Harry Potter. 

A/N: A great big thanks to Templa Otmena who diligently reads and reviews every chapter and makes nasty little digs at my lack of updating. Excuse me; there hasn't exactly been a flood of updates from your end either! Christmas? You should be so lucky.

Thanks also to The Morrigan Three, otherwise known as my little sister, who often reads a chapter and reviews if she hasn't anything better to do and makes nasty little digs about the angsty-mushiness which is just hard cheese because other people quite like it.

Last, but not least, thanks to Karen who was so kind in her review of my last chapter. Wow, I hadn't realised that it's been two years since I posted the first chapter! I assure you, it's taken this long because I'm friggin lazy and it's about time I got it finished. I haven't read any other Sirius-goes-through-the-veil fics, partly because I didn't want to inadvertently re-use somebody else's plot and partly because I usually only read parodies but I am deeply flattered that you enjoy my story, I do try to keep the story as plausible as it can be when talking about magic because I can't stand reading stories where people make the characters do things that they never would and leave huge holes in the plot, if you're going to write a story you might as well put some effort into it.

Well, here's chapter 13, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. Please review and tell me what you think! It's been reworked because as Lina Thantos correctly pointed out, Lucius Malfoy isn't actually related to Sirius, not closely anyway! Thanks for pointing that out!

Chapter 13: Pureblood 

Harry slowly walked into the dimly lit room, a cold pale light emanating from the stone dais in the centre of the room supporting a crumbling stone arch. A tattered black veil fluttered silently, beckoning him forward. His heart was lead in his chest as he gazed at the object that had haunted him for weeks. Stumbling forward, he ascended the dais until he was almost touching the torn cloth. The room until then had been silent but the sound of people whispering made Harry lean forward to try and hear what they were saying but to no avail. He walked around the arch, looking for any marks or writing on the dais or archway to indicate why it was here. Should he walk through it? The thought was tempting, to just walk through and leave the world behind. His breath hitched, he would be able to see Sirius again! He stood still for a moment, listening to the eerie whispers that lured him into moving closer. With his heart pounding he stretched out his trembling hand to brush the curtain aside.

"HARRY!"

The shout made him spin round and he saw Ron burst into the room and tackle him, sending them both tumbling to the floor.

"GET OFF! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" yelled Harry, scrambling to his feet. Ron leapt up and positioned himself in between Harry and the veil with his arms outstretched,

"You'll die if you go through there! What do you want to do that for?" He gasped.

Harry breathed heavily. Didn't Ron understand that he had to go in after Sirius and bring him out again? He tried to dodge round Ron but his training as a goalkeeper meant he easily blocked Harry's attempts. Harry yanked his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at Ron, his hand shaking.

"Either move or I'll stun you."

Ron stared white-faced at Harry then fiercely shook his head,

"I'm not moving. I'm not going to allow you to kill yourself. How do you know you can find Sirius? How do you know that there's anything through there? Perhaps there isn't, it could be just nothingness!"

"NO! Sirius must be in there! I can hear whispers, I can bring him back again!"

"If people can come back, why has nobody done it?"

Harry glared at Ron, "How do you know nobody has come back through? Maybe nobody wants to come back again!"

"How do you know Sirius wants to come back then?"

"If I'm not supposed to go through," he snarled, "Then why did it appear when I asked for a way to save Sirius?"

"Perhaps there's some way of bringing him back without you going through." Harry stopped and stared at Ron, who quickly continued, "A spell maybe."

He lowered his wand and Ron slowly walked over to him as though he was half afraid Harry would suddenly rush to the arch again but he just stood with a bowed head. Was there another way? He glanced at Ron and was ashamed at having threatened him, he was his best mate and after all he'd done for him he had threatened to stun him. Ron picked up the cloak and Marauder's Map off the floor and steered a suddenly drained Harry out of the room,

"Come on, we can ask Hermione what she thinks."

When they told Hermione and Ginny what had happened over breakfast the following morning, they both sat staring at Harry in horror.

"You tried to run through the curtain!" asked Ginny, aghast.

Harry suddenly found the fork he was holding very interesting. Looking back now it seemed a stupid thing to do but at the time all he wanted was to find his godfather.

"Is there any way of bringing him back?" Ron asked.

Hermione sat open mouthed at Harry, who wished she would stop it and just get on with lecturing him on how stupid he was but instead she just closed her mouth and sighed heavily. Suddenly registering Ron's question she shook her head. "Maybe when they were first created, there were ways of communicating with spirits but seen as the veil is locked deep in the Department of Mysteries, I presume that nobody knows much about them any more. We could look in the library, see if there's anything about them there."

Ron rolled his eyes, obviously not relishing the idea of spending his summer holidays pouring through rows and rows of books but with a sharp look from Hermione he quickly finished his breakfast.

As was expected, the library was deserted. Harry felt far more relaxed without Madam Pince glaring at him through gaps in the bookshelves. Hermione suggested they split up and look in different sections, she would look at death and contacting the dead, Ginny would look for anything on ancient pagan practises, and Harry and Ron would look for information on veils. The girls wandered off to the other end of the library whilst Harry and Ron slowly trudged down to the section labelled 'V'.

Half an hour later none of them had found much information. Ginny had found quite a few books on druids but nothing on archways and Hermione had joined her because there was nothing on the afterlife apart from a bit about ghosts. Harry walked along another row and turned his head on its side to read the book spines. He pulled out a small red one at random with a blank cover but it turned out to be about Veils of Illusion and shoved it back on the shelf sourly.

After another two hours of fruitless searching they gave up and left the library, brushing dust from their sleeves and rubbing stiff necks. Hermione was muttering to herself under her breath, the failure of her usual source of information obviously annoyed her a great deal. Harry was thinking back to the Room of Requirement and whether he should go back and look again to see if he missed anything. Perhaps if he walked past asking a slightly different question, something else would materialise along with the veil.

They got lunch from a typically overly enthusiastic Dobby who piled baskets of food on them and walked down to the lake. They sat under the same tree as they had the day before, watching the Giant Squid float past in the deep blue water.

"I wonder how it got there," said Ron lazily as he lay back in the sunshine eating a chicken leg.

"It was a gift from the wizard Gwalstawt in 1740 to the headmaster of Hogwarts at the time," answered Hermione as she poured drinks from a chilled flask, "and he decided to keep it here in the lake where it would have room to grow. There are reportedly only a few specimens as they usually live deep in ocean trenches but they can live for several hundred years."

"Sorry I asked," muttered Ron to Harry who gave a faint smile. He was too preoccupied with the matter of getting Sirius back to pay much attention.

"What do we do now then?" asked Ginny, picking up a cheese sandwich. Hermione glared at the surface of the lake as if expecting the answer to be etched in the ripples and didn't say anything.

"Call through the curtain?" shrugged Ron, "Shout his name?"

Harry remembered the magical amplification spell that Bagman had used to commentate at the Quidditch World Cup and doubted something that simple would work.

"I expect that's been tried before," said Harry quietly. What he really wanted to know was who was whispering on the other side of the curtain. Suddenly Hermione leapt to her feet, knocking the pumpkin juice over and shot off back to the castle, yelling over her shoulder that she was going back to the library. The other three looked at each other and Ron sat up perplexed, "What did we say?"

Following at a slower pace and with Ron carrying as much food as he could, they entered the library to find Hermione sat cross-legged on the floor in the middle of piles and piles of books. When Ginny asked what she was looking for Hermione just hushed her and brushed her hair out of her eyes, flinging the book she'd been flicking through to one side and pulling another onto her lap. Ron suggested through a full mouth that they left her to it and had a game of Quidditch instead. Hermione glanced up briefly from the book she was skimming to give him a disapproving sniff. Harry felt he needed a good long fly on his broom anyway to help clear his head from all the theories rushing round and round and readily agreed so they fetched their brooms from their dormitories and carried the school box of Quidditch balls down to the pitch.

Harry pushed hard off the ground and soared quickly into the air, rising high above the swaying grass until the spectator towers were specks below him. The wind was stronger up here and he closed his eyes, relishing the breeze blowing back his hair before diving suddenly back down to where Ginny and Ron had started tossing the Quaffle to each other. Harry and Ginny took it in turns to try and get the Quaffle past Ron, who made some impressive saves then Ginny took his place whilst Harry let the Snitch go, watching it glint in the sun before disappearing from sight. He soared around above the pitch for a minute or two before beginning his search for the tiny golden ball. He spotted it at the other end, accelerating quickly after it and made a neat catch before turning and speeding back to the other end. This is when he saw Hermione in the distance hurrying down to the pitch from the castle. He called to Ron and Ginny and they all flew over to meet her.

She looked excited when they landed and hope blazed within Harry, had she found something to bring back Sirius?

"What is it?" asked Ron eagerly.

"A Summoning Charm!" Hermione turned the book around that she was holding and handed it to Harry. Harry felt disappointment wash over him. A Summoning charm? How would that help them? Hermione saw Harry's face and elaborated.

"A Summoning charm specifically for Sirius!"

The three blank faces in front of her made Hermione snatch the book back in impatience and search down the page with her finger.

"Here. Read that." She handed the book back over and Harry focused on the words she was pointing at,

"A Summoning charm calls to the caster of the charm the object desired. The further the distance between the magic user and the object, the stronger the charm required." Harry looked up again, still not understanding why Hermione was showing this to him. He knew how a Summoning charm worked, he had used one in the first task to bring his Firebolt to him had he not? "How will a simple Summoning charm bring Sirius back out of the veil?" he asked.

Hermione shook her head, "A _simple_ Summoning charm won't, you can't summon people, only inanimate objects but I was looking through some of the books Ginny found and there were several mentions of blood being used in magic. It was thought to enhance the strength of the spell but of course this was found to be false, which is why no one uses their blood in potions these days. However," she interrupted Ron who opened his mouth speak, "Your blood is unique to you isn't it? What if we used some sort of Summoning spell combined with the blood to call Sirius." She looked at them eagerly. Harry thought it was all a bit far fetched but he did not have any better ideas and if Hermione thought it might work it was worth a try.

"Who's blood though?" asked Harry.

This question seemed to deflate Hermione's optimism. "That's the only problem. To call Sirius, we'd either need some of his blood or somebody closely related."

They stood in silence, the snap of the flags flying from the Quidditch towers being the only sound then Harry quietly spoke up,

"Malfoy."

Hermione immediately began work on devising a potion whilst Ginny, Harry and Ron thought up various plans to try and get a sample of Draco Malfoy's blood. Ron suggested walking up and punching him but Ginny pointed out that it wasn't the subtlest of options and they should make it look like an accident instead. Harry was all for smashing the smug git in the face when he least expected it but admitted that it would be easier to get some blood if Draco didn't suspect anything. Luckily for them, the opportunity to carry out their plan came a lot earlier than expected.

"Can you pass the carrots please Harry?"

Harry gave the dish to Ginny and carried on talking to Hermione about what the potion would actually do. What he gathered from Hermione's long-winded explanation, the blood would concentrate the Summoning charm specifically on Sirius Black though whether it would work or if there was anything left of Sirius for it to work on were things Harry preferred not to think about. It was a simple potion though and could be brewed within hours of getting the last crucial ingredient, Malfoy's blood. Harry helped himself to more mashed potato and was about to ask Ron to pass the gravy when a cold voice echoed in the Entrance Hall.

"Dumbledore, I hope you have an adequate explanation for this blatant favouritism!"

"Narcissa. How delightful of you to drop by without the inconvenience of myself having to issue an invitation. And what blatant favouritism would this be?"

Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione had stopped eating and were looking at each other in surprise. What was Narcissa Malfoy doing here?

"It is Mrs Malfoy, and you know fully well what I mean Dumbledore. Allowing Harry Potter and his _friends_ to stay here when the school is shut!"

"Ah, I see." The sure tones of Dumbledore sounded completely unconcerned, "Well, as I am sure you know, the threat to Mr Potter is as great as ever now Voldemort is back in power and the Weasleys recently suffered quite a vicious attack on their home so I offered a safe place for them to stay whilst they sorted out the mess. I'm sure you will understand that I could not just stand aside and watch them struggle when I have a whole castle full of empty rooms! That would be the most appalling bad manners! I must admit that I also enjoy the company, with just myself staying here things do tend to get a bit tiresome."

Creeping to the doors of the Great Hall, they peered through the opening to see a livid Narcissa Malfoy, her long blond hair framing her flushed face. Opposite her stood a superbly calm Dumbledore dressed in light green with his hands clasped before him, a shaft of sunlight from the window above the main doors setting off his own long silver hair. The headmaster was giving the impression that he was merely having a pleasant chat in the street with an old friend he had not seen in years. Narcissa's lips twisted into a sneer,

"So you are telling me that Potter is more important than all the other students, including my son, that come here and therefore requires preferential treatment? Not even he has the right to stay here over the summer! My husband shall be hearing about this! And Fudge, I'm sure he'll be very interested to hear how you have been abusing your position!"

"Of course my dear lady, you have every right to converse with the Minister of Magic but I am quite sure that in these exceptional circumstances I am quite within my rights as the headmaster of this school to place the safety of my students before convention."

Harry flung the door he was hidden behind wide and was about to march out and defend Dumbledore against Narcissa Malfoy when he was roughly shoved aside by Hermione stalking across the main hall to the furious woman, who's sneer turned to disgust when she saw the muggle-born witch.

"She's here as well is she? Hardly surprising, everybody knows your love for those who sully magic with their very existence."

Her contemptuous smirk turned to shock when Hermione swung her arm around and backhanded her hard across her face. She staggered backwards, a red mark rapidly spreading across her left cheek and Hermione advanced with her fist raised threateningly,

"It's people like you who sully magic, pure blood obsessed bigots who think they are something special when you're really just a bunch of inbreds clinging to the idea that anybody gives a shit what you think!" Her eyes spat daggers as she advanced upon Narcissa, "So what if my parents can't do magic? I can still beat your pureblood son in every single subject by miles. You just-

"Miss Granger!" Dumbledore seemed to have shaken off the surprise at seeing one of his calmest and respectful students hit Narcissa Malfoy in the mouth and strode across to separate them. Harry, Ron and Ginny ran forward from where they had been stood gawping in amazement in the doorway of the Great Hall, pulling their wands from their pockets. Hermione jumped at Dumbledore's voice and lowered her hand in shock before looking back at Narcissa who was now looking mutinous. She glared back at her then in a derisive gesture pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and threw it in her face.

"I wouldn't let that pure blood of yours drip onto the floor, Mr Filtch wouldn't be very happy at having to come in and clean it up."

Flinching as the cloth hit her cut lip, Narcissa tore it away and flung it to the floor. She lunged forward with a snarl and lashed out, intending to rake her nails across Hermione's face but Dumbledore swiftly caught her arm, placing himself between the two livid witches. Bright red blood trickled down Narcissa's chin and onto the collar of her immaculate silver robes, contrasting sharply with her white face currently twisted in hatred.

"The Minister shall be hearing about this," she hissed at Dumbledore and without a glance at the others swept back out of the front doors and down the drive.


	14. A Summoning Spell

Ron, Harry and Ginny were all sat in the Gryffindor Common room an hour later, grouped around a wizard's chessboard but there was little play going on. Hermione had been with Professor Dumbledore since the encounter with Narcissa Malfoy and all three were desperate to know what was going on.

"I can't believe it, she just…" muttered Ron in awe for the fourteenth time since they had sat down. Harry made an affirmative noise and absent-mindedly prodded a pawn with his wand, which squeaked when Ron's knight galloped across the chessboard to tackle it. Ginny shifted in her seat and Harry noticed that she was frowning.

"What's up?"

Ginny propped her head on one hand and drummed the fingers of her other hand on the arm rest, "That wasn't like Hermione at all. Sure she hates the Malfoys but to suddenly freak out and start hitting Narcissa."

"She has hit Malfoy before though, remember," said Ron.

"Yeah, but…" Realisation suddenly dawned across her face, "The handkerchief!"

Harry was about to ask why a handkerchief was so important when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung outwards and Hermione climbed in through the hole. The others watched her pull over a chair and sit in it before looking innocently at each of them. Ron raised his eyebrows. "Well? Care to tell us what the hell you were doing?"

Hermione smiled and pulled a bloodied handkerchief out from her robe pocket, placing it on the table in front of her.

"The potion is now complete."

Ginny grinned and ran around top hug Hermione whilst Ron looked at the tissue in distaste but Harry suddenly understood what Hermione had done.

"Of course, Narcissa Malfoy and Sirius are cousins."

Hermione rolled her eyes but was still smirking when she put the handkerchief away again, "What did you think I was doing?"

"Hermione! That's brilliant!" exclaimed Ron, so can we do it now? Get Sirius back?"

Hermione looked at Harry, "There's no reason not to, Professor Dumbledore said he was going down to Hogsmeade to talk to Madame Rosmerta."

Harry nodded and took a deep breath, "Does Dumbledore know what we are doing?"

Hermione shook her head, "No, I told him that the stress of the muggle killings and the attack at The Burrow made me hit Narcissa Malfoy, I'm pretty sure he believed me." She grinned again, "I can't say I didn't enjoy seeing Narcissa Malfoy's face though when she couldn't do anything to me."

"This is going to make Malfoy even worse though next year," said Ginny.

Harry shrugged, "We can handle whatever Malfoy can come up with, and who knows, he might even be too scared of Hermione's fists to do anything!"

Hermione blushed but stood up with a determined expression on her face, "Let's go and save Sirius then."

The Room of Requirement was exactly how they had left it, the cold light from the archway being a definite contrast to the blazing sunlight they had left outside. The four of them walked forward apprehensively and Harry carefully placed the cauldron of Hermione's potion on the dais. He sat down on the stone floor and picked up a small pot of Albatross tears. Hermione said it was used to bind the blood into the spell and Harry took the handkerchief with Narcissa Malfoy's blood on it, soaking it thoroughly. Ron and Ginny sat to his left, each holding their wand and Hermione sat to his right, placing the heavy book on the floor and checking it one final time. Harry stared at the veil rippling inches away but for once the voices were silent as though everybody living and dead were holding their breath. With his heart thumping loudly, Harry looked at Hermione, who nodded and took out her own wand, then picked up the soaked handkerchief. Suddenly the pot slipped and smashed on the floor, Harry grabbed for it instinctively and caught one of the sharp shards, cutting deep into his finger. Hermione went to grab his hand but Harry shook his head and with a final deep breath dropped the cloth into the cauldron. The liquid inside immediately began boiling and a red mist formed and swirled above it. They all dipped the tips of their wands into the cauldron and pointing towards the veil called loudly in one voice, "ACCIO SIRIUS!"

Four beams of light hit the veil and Harry half expected them to pass right through and hit the opposite wall but instead they vanished with a shudder from the curtain. He stood up and gazed unblinkingly at the silent swishing of the veil, his fists clenched, breaths coming in gasps as he willed his godfather back from wherever he had gone. Unnoticed, a slow trail of blood wove its way down his wand.

Sirius had lost track of how many days had passed, they all became one in his continuous search for the end of the world. The scenery changed around him from lush green forest to purple heathered moorland, the ground rising beneath his pounding paws into limestone cliffs before suddenly dropping away into deep gorges. Sirius tried to keep a straight bearing but the terrain made it difficult. Large rivers too swift to swim across had to be trekked up until a more suitable crossing place could be found, steep cliffs had to be walked around instead of scaled but he kept moving onwards, only stopping to collapse exhausted every evening. Occasionally he glimpsed the dark clouds on the horizon and they looked as far away as ever.

He had woken once again aching and tired, this time in a sheltered hollow under exposed tree roots. It was raining, for the first time since he had landed in that place, and the low rumbling of thunder echoed across the sky. Sirius crawled out of the hollow and changed into a man, cupping his hands to catch the rain and drank greedily. He was not sure whether he needed to eat and drink or not but he suffered hunger pains as he did in the living world when he didn't eat all day. Hunger was nothing new to Sirius however and he once again changed into his animagus form and loped off across the grassy plain in front of him.

Several minutes had passed since they had cast the spell and nothing had happened. Hermione had picked up the book again and was straining to read it in the dim light, Ron and Ginny were looking worriedly at Harry who still had not moved.

"Maybe there wasn't enough blood," whispered Hermione but Harry didn't seem to hear her, instead he was shaking slightly then before any of them realised what he was doing, he lunged forward and plunged his wand back into the cauldron, scooping up the handkerchief and once again pointing at the veil.

"ACCIO SIRIUS!" He bellowed and the force of his spell blasted the cloth into the void shrouded by the veil. Immediately the swaying of the curtain became more agitated as though it was flapping in a strong breeze. The others pulled a resisting Harry back from the edge of the dais until they were a few steps from the bottom where they stopped and watched in hope and trepidation as the fabric of the living and dead worlds was breeched once more.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier. Sirius struggled on, unable to see more than a few feet in front of him. The storm was getting louder and he quickly regretted leaving the shelter of the trees but out here there was no cover and he forced his way forward against the strength of the downpour, paws slipping on the grass. Eyes almost shut he methodically put one foot in front of the other, straining to stay standing whilst the weight of the water pushed him down. After a few minutes he realised that the only thing to do was lie down and wait for the storm to pass, he was making very little progress but then the ground gave way beneath his front paws. Scrambling to back up he slipped and slid on the vegetation, bright flashes blinding him and once again he felt the floor disappear from beneath his feet.

Sirius spun through the air and with the howling wind and flashes of light he got the impression that he was back in the grey tunnels that ran between the different worlds of the dead. A point of light grew in the distance and he rushed unstoppably towards it, howling in fright and shock.

Stood in the Room of Requirement, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny heard a faint noise that sounded like somebody or something in pain coming from the veil. They readied their wands, hearts thumping in their chests. What if they had caused something terrible to happen? The sound got louder and louder, Harry bit his lip and kept his eyes firmly on the curtain, this had been the only chance to save Sirius, they had to do it. The veil billowed and they jumped as a black shape hurtled through and hit the cauldron, splashing the potion all over the archway. Getting ready to shout a disarming charm, Harry backed away from the shape but the familiarity of it made the words vanish from his mind. Oblivious to Ginny's gasp he hesitantly walked forward, his wand dropping to his side. The black shape had it's back to him and he watched it heave itself up and turn around, water streaming from its fur.

"Lumos."

In the light from Hermione's wand, Harry dropped to his knees and stared at the large dog stumbling towards him, hardly daring to believe his eyes. Tears streamed down his face as the dog changed shape and Sirius appeared in front of him, gaunt and shivering but with an identical expression of shock on his face. Inches away from each other Harry tried to say something but his throat was choked with emotion and when Sirius held out his arms, he threw himself into them, repeating Sirius' name again and again.


	15. Enter The Void

Sirius hit the veil and landed on a cold stone floor, a warm liquid splashing over him. Immediately all of his remaining memories exploded into his brain and he gasped from the knowledge of what had happened. He heard something behind him and he turned around to see Harry on his knees, staring at him with a desperate, incredulous expression and Sirius felt the same expression spread across his own features as he changed out of his animagus form back into a human being. He held out his arms, barely daring to believe that he was alive and that Harry was safe after the battle in the Department of Mysteries. Clutching the sobbing teenager to his chest he felt tears roll down his face, the enormity of what had just happened to him shaking him to the core.

"James…"

Harry pulled back at Sirius' hoarse whisper and stared into his face. Sirius stared back, his face distraught. Harry clutched hold of his shoulders.

"What is it? Did you see my dad?" Hope lit up his features but Sirius' expression was like a knife to his heart.

"He's lost."

Hermione, Ginny and Ron had moved forward to join them on the floor and Ginny touched his arm.

"What do you mean by he's lost?"

Sirius turned to face her but all he could see was James disappearing into nothing as the passageway fell apart and flung them into different worlds.

"We fell, we were together, he was trying to help. Oh no!" He surged to his feet and spun round to face the veil once more. "I need to go back!"

"NO!" Harry leapt at him, holding onto his arms and struggling to pull him backwards. Ron and Ginny both grabbed Sirius' coat but he was too strong, hysteria driving him forward.

"I CAN'T LEAVE HIM THERE! JAMES! HE'LL NEVER FIND LILY AGAIN!"

"WAIT!" yelled Hermione running forward.

Sirius stopped struggling and turned to her, falling to his knees.

"Please, we have to get him back. James, Lily…"

He collapsed into tears upon Harry who was white with shock. Sirius had met his parents again? But why were they apart? Panic flared in his chest and he shook Sirius hard.

"What happened to them? Why will mum and dad not find each other? Where are they?"

Shock had descended upon Sirius and he felt oddly empty. The two people he had loved most in the world were dead but now, through helping him, they would spend eternity in different worlds. Lily at Hogwarts waiting vainly for her husband to come back to her and James trapped in somebody else's world; never able to find his way back to the woman he loved. He felt a hand on his face and looked up to see Hermione gazing at him in despair.

"I don't know if we can get him back. The spell only summons solid objects, I don't know if it'll work on…" her voice faded to a whisper.

Harry slowly stood up and walked around the others, Sirius' voice echoing in his head. 'I can't leave him there! James! He'll never find Lily again!'

"Harry, where are you going?"

He didn't hear Ron's voice but carried on walking forwards towards the gently rippling veil, the renewed whispers beckoning him forward as he placed his feet upon the plinth. The stone of the archway felt rough beneath his fingers but the veil as he brushed it aside was liquid ice. He was prepared to leave the living if it meant his parents would never be together again otherwise and if he truly had to admit it, the veil had always held a fascination for him ever since he had first seen it in the Department of Mysteries. He could see the stone wall opposite through the arch but he knew there was something between them, the faintest chill against his face. He took one last look behind him at his three best friends frozen on the floor and the godfather he thought he would never see again, smiling sadly as he did so. Then he stepped forward and vanished into the air.


	16. Through Life and Death

It was black, so black. It was empty, just an endless expanse of space. No sound, no light, no sensation of any kind as Harry entered complete nothingness and all of his memories vanished with one step. His mind blank, he tried to look around but the black was absolute, he could not even tell whether his eyes were open or closed. Harry felt nothing, whether he was falling or standing still, if he was upright or upside down. He desperately tried to explore his surroundings but his hands closed on empty air, his breath coming in quick gasps that were immediately swallowed by the oppressive silence that pressed in on his ears. Panic roared inside him, clutching his chest, choking him. Who was he? Where was he? What was he? Devoid of touch, smell, sight, gravity, his existence narrowed to a voice screaming inside his mind.

The water had gotten rough again and was pounding onto the sand so hard that James felt the vibrations travel up through his feet. He stood at the highest point of the small island, gazing out across the swelling ocean and watching the dark bank of clouds on the horizon rolling and building into a towering storm. The strengthening gale pulled great walls of water upwards and hurled them against the beaches so hard that plants were beginning to be uprooted. James watched this with a mixture of worry and hope because this was similar to the conditions that first threw him here but if this was just a storm then he could be swept out to sea to drift forever in a sea of emptiness. Soon the water was rising so high with every wave that James struggled to keep his feet under the shifting soil as the backwash tried to pull him forwards. Salt water filled his mouth as his legs disappeared from beneath him and he fell into the oncoming breakers, the entire island was downing and James was carried along with it.

He was being tossed about a frothing grey sea, spray blinding him and pushing him back under the waves. The sky was swirling above him like smoke, splintered by lightning flashes and a thick mist descended to enclose James in a cold, bleak blanket. Disorientated by the movement he struggled to keep afloat, the sky and the sea merging to form a seething grey mass. Around him the mist began to move in a circle, opening a way before him and he realised that he was no longer in water but back in the tunnel he fell from with Sirius. He eagerly looked around to see if the other wizard was there but the way behind was closing in. He began to run through the tunnel in case it collapsed around him again and before him appeared a bright white light.

Harry was rapidly losing his mind. Curled up tightly in a ball, his fists clenched and unclenched in his hair. He was nothing, just a small flicker of consciousness lost in oblivion. What was the point of it's existence? Then there was the light, the faintest pinprick in the absence of everything that Harry latched on to with his very sanity depending upon it. The light grew and moved steadily towards him, mesmerising Harry who reached out his hands to it. Somebody grabbed it from the other side and half dragged him through but as soon as his hand touched the living world he suddenly remembered why he left it and turned round to look back into death. Stretched out before him was a tunnel of swirling grey, flashes of colour streaked through it and at the end he saw his father running towards his mother and lifting her in the air.

"Harry!"

Sirius' voice was muffled through the veil and he felt his friends trying to pull him back into the Room of Requirement but he resisted and instead pulled Sirius' arm through so his head appeared.

"Ha-

"Look!"

Sirius pulled his eyes away from Harry's and looked down the tunnel to where James held Lily around the waist and was spinning her round and round, looking at her with such love it brought tears to Sirius' eyes.

"James, Lily…"

James lowered Lily to the ground and they both looked down the tunnel at Sirius' gasp, relief lighting up both their faces when they saw him, then they saw Harry stood next to him, both half in and half out of the breach between their worlds. Harry felt a fierce ache in his heart as he stared at his parents, who clutched each other tighter and gazed back, his mother putting a hand to her mouth. The tunnel was constricting and would soon disappear but just before it closed completely Harry saw his mum and dad smile at him with unconditional love, tears running down their faces as they waved him goodbye until one day they would meet again.

The scene of Lily and James framed against the silhouette of Hogwarts as the sun set behind them vanished behind a curtain of mist and Harry felt Sirius gently draw him back to where Hermione, Ron and Ginny were stood waiting. As soon as he left the veil Hermione leapt on him, pulling him into a crushing hug but Harry did not mind, all he could see was his parents together and smiling at him, an image that would stay with him for the rest of his life.

"Harry, I'm so glad you're alright! Where did you go?" Hermione's voice wavered as though she was desperately trying not to cry. An image of complete blackness filled Harry's mind and he shied away from it, the feeling of absolute despair and hopelessness was still to fresh. Sirius seemed to understand.

"Come on, let's all get out of here and somewhere a bit more pleasant before questions are answered and I'm sure Harry wants some time to organise his thoughts."

Harry looked up at Sirius and they shared a quick smile, Sirius putting his arm around his godson's shoulders before they all left the Room of Requirement, leaving the crumbling archway hung with a veil gently swaying in the dim light.

Ron, Ginny, Hermione and Harry sat down in the chairs they had left just an hour earlier whilst Sirius wandered around the Gryffindor common room picking up random objects and obviously reminiscing about his student days. Harry felt exhausted but jubilant at the same time, he had his godfather back and a whole lifetime to get to know him better, plus he had seen his parents. He closed his eyes and let the feeling of knowing that they were there and that they loved him sweep over him. A soft chuckle from Sirius as he remembered something brought Harry back to the present and he looked across at Hermione.

"Thanks for bringing me back."

Hermione took a deep breath and smiled, "I'm just glad we managed to quickly bring you back. From what Sirius was telling us, the presence of the living seemed to unbalance the forces in the world of the dead. Where did you go?"

Harry hung his head and studied a tear on the knee of his jeans. "There was nothing, it was a void. I…"

Ginny stood up and moved to sit next to him, resting her hand on his arm. Harry took strength from her touch and continued. "I would have gone insane if you hadn't pulled me out in time."

"If you hadn't cut your finger…"

Harry nodded his head. Ron looked ill, "How come you didn't go crazy?" he asked Sirius. Sirius turned away from the window and pulled up another chair.

"I didn't land in a void, I was in a room identical to the Department of Mysteries. They must be linked through somehow but the Room of Requirement is…different." He spent the rest of the afternoon describing to them his journey through the portrait in the hall of doors to where Lily and James were then their search for a way to get Sirius back to where he belonged. The sky was darkening by the time Sirius reached the end of his story and the others sat in astonished silence after he had finished. Harry sat in his chair and surveyed his friends and godfather lit in the dying rays of the sun and smiled to himself, it had been a very interesting summer indeed.


End file.
